


The Power of Seven: Secrets

by Kihonne



Series: Heroes in the Making: An Elite Force [11]
Category: Lab Rats (TV 2012), Lab Rats: Elite Force (TV), Mighty Med
Genre: Action/Adventure, Betrayal, F/M, Family, Friendship, Romance, Secrets, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2020-01-05 22:37:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18375482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kihonne/pseuds/Kihonne
Summary: Just as things are seeming to settle down for the team, Dani embarks on a dangerous path as she gets back into contact with her and Oliver's mother, known to the world as the super villain Mr. Terror. Conflicted about her choices, Dani's unsure of what to do, and what's worse is, she's keeping everything a secret from the rest of the team. But things like this can't stay secret forever.





	1. Bad Ideas

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own mighty med, lab rats, or the elite force, or anything from the original TV shows. I only own this story, Calla, Dani, Jaden, any other OCs present, and anything else you don't recognize.

**Dani's POV**

"Ugh, I feel like a college student." I commented, walking into the living room, carrying a coffee cup full of that just-add-water noodle stuff that I found in the cupboard. Skylar looked up from her magazine.

"Why not just do the dishes?" She questioned. I shrugged, relaxing onto the couch.

"Too tired. We've been up all night, going over old resumes from the original Mighty Med." I explained. "Thank God Ollie offered to take today to set things up and bring back a couple of old employees. Guess which of our favorite nurses he's picking up today?"

"Well, you only had two favorites, and Benny was killed, so that doesn't leave many options." She replied as Kaz and Bree walked into the Penthouse, carrying grocery bags. AJ followed shortly behind them. "Hey, you guys need help with those?"

"Nah, we got it." Bree assured her, carrying the bags into the kitchen. AJ dropped onto the couch between me and Skylar.

"So, what are you guys doing?" He asked, putting his arms on the back of the couch.

"Chilling. Eating. Refusing to do chores." I replied absently.

"Not going on missions either." Skylar added. She frowned. "You know, it kinda feels weird, now that we're kinda on vacation."

"Yeah, what are you guys going to do now that Roman, Riker, their pathological father and their psychotic siblings are out of the picture?" AJ inquired. "I mean, weren't they the whole reason you guys put this team together?"

"Kid's got a point." Kaz agreed, leaning on the back of the couch.

"What, you wanna leave?" I challenged, surprised. Skylar shook her head.

"No, of course not. None of us do." She answered for him. "But why are we here? Are we just a general response team? Or are we supposed to go after big villains like Alivia's team?"

"I say we just go on normal missions until a major player joins the game again." Bree suggested. "But if no one does, I'm not exactly complaining. Between Marcus, and Krane, and Giselle, and the Roddiseus family, I'm definitely game for a break from super villains for a while."

"We could use the vacation." Kaz agreed. "Besides, there aren't many major villains out there. The only one I can think of is Dr. Wrath and Liv's team has that covered."

I nodded in agreement, then began to dig back into my meal. I paused, however, when Skylar spoke up. "Well, there's Bridget."

I stopped what I was doing, then looked at her sharply. She gave me a guilty look, clearly unsure of whether or not it was alright to bring up that topic. Even a year later, she and the others were hesitant to bring up my mother.

"What about her?" I questioned, placing my bowl on the table.

"Well, I just remembered that we agreed we'd go after her when all the Roman and Riker stuff were finished." Skylar said slowly. I shrugged, trying to keep my reaction to a minimum.

"I don't really want to do that anymore, actually." I replied absently. The others all looked at me.

"Okay, when it came to hunting her down, you were more obsessed than Oliver, and that's saying something." Kaz looked at me closely. "You alright?"

"I'm fine." I just wanted to handle the mom thing on my own, my way. "But she's in hiding. We don't have any leads, and honestly, I don't feel like diving back into crazy, evil chaos that surrounds my mother. And if she's in hiding, then she's not doing any harm, right? So why not let her be for the time being?"

"Alright, if that's what you want." Kaz agreed hesitantly. I leaned my head back so I could smile up at him.

"Thank you." I told him sincerely. I had a plan to handle the Mom thing on my own, but I knew he and the rest of the team wouldn't like it, so I wanted to keep him out of it as much as possible. The less he was involved, the less likely it was that he would get hurt from this. There was an awkward silence after that – clearly Skylar had expected that to go a little bit differently – so I quickly changed the topic of conversation. "So, has anyone else caught the news this morning?"

They all shook their heads, so I reached over and grabbed the TV remote. Turning on the TV, I switched it to the Chip and Dixie channel, where footage of the battle had been streaming all day. Most of it was of Bree, Chase, and their siblings, Adam and Leo, likely because the world already knew who they were, but we all got a few scenes of us kicking butt. "We're famous!"

"Wow." Skylar looked surprised. Bree seemed pleased with the footage.

"You know, maybe that's why my mom's been trying to call me all day." Kaz commented, nodding in approval at the screen.

"Yeah, she probably wants to know when and how you became bionic." Bree agreed, nodding at the ribbon underneath the footage. It read 'Bionic Heroes Save Centium City' as the headline of the news piece. "This is incredible. Chase and Calla are going to freak when they see this."

**Kaz's POV**

"So, I had a thought." I began, smirking at the others once Bree and I finished putting away the groceries. Skylar gasped mockingly.

"It's a miracle." She teased. I chuckled.

"Calla and Chase don't get back until, like, 10, so this is our last day without 'adult' supervision." Well, technically, Bree was also older than us, but she was usually game for what I suggested. "So I say we have some fun. Order a lot of pizza and pop, rent a couple of R-rated movies that Chase would disapprove of, and chill. Seriously, we deserve a break to have some fun. And Oliver said he would be done setting things up at Mighty Med by 4, so the timing works."

"I'm game." "Sweet." "Let's do it." The girls all agreed. Dani's phone vibrated then, and she swiped it off the table. She frowned, reading the text, then stood up.

"Liv." She shrugged in explanation, grabbing her purse off the table. "She needs me to run down a lead for her on one of Dr. Wrath's minions."

"Why does she never ask us to do that sort of thing?" Skylar questioned, confused. Dani smirked.

"Because I'm her favorite." She teased. She headed for the door. "I'll catch up with you guys later."

She closed the door behind her. I shrugged – Dani must be Liv's favorite, considering how often she sent my girlfriend to check out leads for her. Skylar grabbed the TV guide off the table. "There's actually a good selection of movies on paperview this week. Kaz, I know you and Dani already saw it like three times, but do you guys want to rent Logan?"

Before any of us could answer, AJ walked in, carrying his IPad. "Hey guys." He greeted. "Guess what I've got here?"

"Is this something only Calla and Chase would really care about?" Skylar asked suspiciously. AJ nodded.

"Probably, but they're not here, so put up with me." He replied. "I think I fixed MISS."

"Really?" Bree looked surprised.

"Yeah, I kinda forgot to get Calla and Chase a wedding gift, so I've been working on fixing their AI since the night of the wedding." He explained. "Anyway, I think I managed to replicate Calla's original code, so I'm going to go upload MISS back into the system."

Without another word, he headed down into Mission Command. "So, Logan?" Skylar asked, continuing on as if she hadn't been interrupted.

**Dani's POV**

I stepped carefully through the tunnel, using the flashlight on my phone to guide me through the darkness. Though the tunnel was dark, I was surprised to find that it was not as filthy as one would expect. After about a hundred feet in the dark, the tunnel opened up into a large, abandoned subway station. It was well lit, and fairly clean. At each corner of the station were these large, silver devices with blue blinking lights. I looked up at one, wondering what it was.

"Danica." I spun around quickly to see my mother standing on the platform of the station. She was dressed in a dark blue pantsuit, her blonde hair curled perfectly over her shoulders. Compared to the last time I saw her – when she was a mess, her expression wild and wearing a dress for a wedding that would never be completed – it was an improvement.

"Hi." I swallowed thickly, briefly wondering how if this was a bad idea or not. "Hi, Mom."

"Those are power dampeners." She told me, gesturing at the devices in the corners. "I thought you'd feel more comfortable if we were on a level playing field."

Crap, I guess she saw how nervous I was. Though, knowing that she couldn't use her powers did make this a little less tense. I nodded, took a deep breath, then pulled myself off the tracks and onto the platform. "Yeah, good call." I agreed, standing up. "I was surprised when you texted."

"Not as surprised as I was to receive your messages. How did you manage to find me?" She questioned, curious. I shrugged.

"I used our AI to track down Mort, then got him to give me your contact information." I explained. She smiled, confused.

"And how did you get him to do that?" She inquired. I smirked.

"I convinced him." I left it at that, hoping she'd get the message. She smiled.

"My beautiful girl, look how powerful you've become." She said sweetly, proudly. I bit my lip, wondering if it was too late to run.

**Kaz's POV**

I ground my teeth together in determination, hitting the buttons on my remote control as fast as I could. Oliver currently held the record on the newest game in our video game collection and I was determined to defeat him at any cost.

Just as I was about to win, someone began pounding fiercely on the front door. "Hey, the door won't accept my keycard!" Oliver complained, his voice coming from the other end.

"MISS, open the door for him." I requested, not looking away from the screen. Nothing happened. "MISS, let him in."

Again, nothing happened. "Guys, c'mon! Let me in!"

Sighing, I paused the game and got up. "AJ said he fixed MISS, but I think he glitched the whole system or something." I explained, opening the door for him.

"Awesome." Oliver rolled his eyes. "So, I finished the interviews for the week. We've got a couple of new staff members, and a couple of the guys from the original Mighty Med are back."

"Sweet." I grinned. Some familiar faces would make the place seem more like home. "Oh, check it out; I'm about to beat your high score."

I swiped the remote control off the coffee table, but before I could press play, the TV went dead. The lights went out, as if the power had just drained from the penthouse. Seconds later, Skylar and Bree came jogging down the stairs. "Hey, what did you guys do?"

"This wasn't us!" Oliver protested. "It must be AJ screwing around in Mission Command."

"Well, he shut down everything in the house." Bree complained. She pulled out her phone and dialed his number. After waiting a moment, she cursed in frustration. "C'mon, pick up your phone, AJ!"

Skylar sighed and went to use the hyperlift, before remembering that it too would be out of order. "C'mon. We can use the tunnels to get in and see what the problem is."

"We'll go." Bree offered, grabbing Oliver's arm. "You guys stay up here and text us when the power's back on."

She didn't wait for a reply, instead adjusting her grip on Oliver then speeding out the door, leaving Skylar and I alone in the penthouse.

**Oliver's POV**

"Whoa!" Bree skidded to a stop, barely managing to stop in time to avoid crashing into the rock wall that stood between us and mission command. "That was open earlier."

"You think AJ closed it?" I guessed. She shrugged, looking at the wall in annoyance. "Let me."

Kneeling down, I managed to get the tips of my fingers under the wall enough to get a half-decent grip on it, then slowly used my super strength to force it open, moving the door upwards an inch at a time. As soon as she could fit underneath, Bree sped past me, into Mission Command. I followed suit, ducking under the wall and letting it slam back down to the ground behind me.

"Look out!" AJ shouted just as we entered the room. Bree and I both ducked instinctually, and just in time – three red hot lasers shot through where our heads had just been, the attack coming from the ovular control unit Calla had installed for MISS above the main consol.

"What the hell is going on?" Bree demanded as we ducked behind one of the other consols. AJ gave us a guilty look as he hid behind the consol with us.

"Well, I uploaded the new code for MISS, and then she just shut everything down and started shooting at me!" He explained. "I think I may have accidently set her security mode to hyper or something."

"Okay, but why would her security mode cause her to attack us?" I questioned.

" _Three intruders detected!"_ MISS' voice shouted as more shots blasted just past our head.  _"Three intruders detected!"_

"It's a new code. I haven't had the chance to input our information into her system, so she doesn't know that we're not intruders." AJ explained, ducking down lower as another laser shot past us.

"Okay, I think this is exactly why Calla doesn't let people touch her tech." Bree decided, frustrated.

"Clearly." I agreed. I looked at AJ. "Do you think you can shut her down?"

"If I can get to the consol, yeah, but with MISS shooting like that, it'll be impossible." The kid insisted.

"I'll take care of MISS." I offered. "You guys shut her down."

"Deal." Bree and AJ nodded. I took a breath, then slid out from under the consol and raced to the other end of the room, drawing MISS' fire. Bree sped AJ over to the consol, while I took aim at the control unit. I blasted it with ice just as the boy genius began typing at the keyboard.

The ice covered the control unit for a brief moment, before another laser broke through and shot right at me. I dodged it, then prepared for another attack. Thankfully, MISS' lasers deactivated just in time.

"Got it." AJ sighed in relief. I grinned, but the relief was short-lived, for MISS reactivated a moment later.

" _Five intruders detected."_ MISS declared. Bree pulled AJ out of the way as the AI began to shoot even more lasers at us. I ducked behind the nearest consol, on the opposite side of the room than Bree and AJ.

"Uh, don't got it!" AJ called.

"What happened?" I demanded.

"I don't know!" He shouted back. He paused. "Wait, did she say 'five intruders'?"

I frowned, then it dawned on me; Kaz and Skylar were waiting for us to turn the power back on. "Crap."

**Dani's POV**

"How do you know how powerful I am?" I asked, confused. She hadn't seen since before we discovered our powers after all. How could she know that we had any, let alone that they were powerful?

"I have contacts all over. I've heard about everything you and Oliver have been up to." She explained. She smiled. "You've become quite powerful in a short amount of time." There was pride in her voice.

"So you know about us fighting Roddiseus and his family?" I questioned. "Then why didn't you call me back when I asked for your help?"

"Danica-" She began, but I interrupted her.

"No, Mom. I called you _._ " I insisted. "There were too many shapeshifters and they were stronger than us, and I didn't think we had a chance in hell to win, so I called you. And you couldn't be bothered to pick up the phone."

"I know." She nodded. "Danica, things were complicated-"

"I thought we were going to die." I cut her off once more.

"But you didn't." Mom reminded me. "You're a survivor. You won."

"Doesn't matter. We needed you, I needed you, and you left us there to die." I accused. "You abandoned us!"

"I knew you could handle it." Mom rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "I know what my children are capable of, Danica. I would have come if I thought you could lose."

"Then you have more faith in us than you should." I snapped. I sighed. "I don't even know why I'm here."

I turned and knelt down, intending to leave, knowing that this was a mistake. Before I could hop back down to the unused tracks, my mother stopped me. "You're here because the world is getting more and more dangerous. And without the heroes that used to keep the world safe, the bad guys are going to win sooner rather than later."

I paused, almost ashamed of how much I agreed with her. She continued. "It took you a year to beat Roddiseus, and during that time he killed dozens of heroes. There's what, 20 or so left in the world, including your team? As good as you are, you can't protect the entire world."

I swallowed. "You told us that you could make the world safe."

"I can." Mom promised me as I stood up. "We can. Danica, help me and we can make the world safer."

**Kaz's POV**

"What are you doing?" Skylar questioned in exasperation as I dug through the cupboards.

"Well, while they're turning the lights back on, I figured I might as well check if we have snacks for tonight." I reasoned. I closed another cupboard door, disappointed. "I know Calla's got a secret chocolate stash around here somewhere."

"If it's such a secret, how do you know about it?" Skylar inquired.

"I found it a while back. I think she moved it though – aha!" I grinned as I removed a box of Cheerios to reveal a tub aware container filled with mini KitKat and Aero bars. "Found it!"

" _Intruder Alert! Intruder alert!"_ I jumped at the sound of MISS' alarmed voice. Before I could even process the sudden alarm, a laser shot at me from somewhere above the TV. I dropped to the ground, hiding behind the kitchen island for cover, while Skylar dived behind the couch.

"Intruder alert?" Skylar repeated, confused. I looked at her, wide-eyed.

"Wait a minute…so all those times villains broke in here, nothing, but the moment I go near Calla's chocolate, you decide to start shooting." I sighed irritably. "Man, Calla needs to reprogram your priorities."

" _I heard that."_ MISS retorted before firing another shot at each of us, these two coming from above the kitchen cupboards. Skylar leapt over the couch again while I threw myself against the nearest wall, the impact accidentally knocking one of the wall decorations down.

"Kaz, stop pissing off MISS!" Skylar snapped. This time, when a shot was fired at her, she grabbed one of the plates off the table, using it to deflect the blast. It didn't work well – the laser shattered the plate – but at least it deflected the laser back towards the wall. "What's going on?"

I didn't have the chance to answer before MISS fired another set of lasers. I ducked lower, then grimaced as the blast missed both of us and hit the TV, leaving a singed crack in the center of it. Davenport was not going to be happy about replacing that.

"I don't know, but we have to stop it!" I shouted.

"No, really?" Skylar retorted sarcastically. MISS shot at us again and Skylar cartwheeled out of the way, kicking her back leg up at the last moment in order to hit the coffee table. The coffee table turned on its side, blocking the laser blast. "Look, we just got to hold her off until Oliver and Bree can fix her. That's what they went down to Mission Command to do, right?"

"Right!" I agreed, darting away from the wall in time to avoid another laser blast. "I just hope they hurry it up."

**Dani's POV**

"I…no. No, I can't work with you." I refused, backing up. I stumbled, almost tripping over the edge of the platform. "I came here because I needed answers, not because I wanted to join your evil militia."

"But isn't that what you want? To make the world safe?" Mom pressed. "We can do that together, sweetheart."

"I don't want to be like you." I whispered. Mom gave me a look.

"You already are." She told me. I shook my head. "Danica, I know about Roddiseus."

She knew how I killed him, how I ended his life. "It was an accident." I told her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Was it?" She asked, not unkindly. "It's alright, I understand. He hurt the people you cared about and you did what you had to make sure he'd never do it again." I gulped. "That's not so different from what I did to Argento. I made sure he would never lay a hand on you or Oliver again."

"I didn't want to kill him. I just wanted to stop him." I insisted. Mom gave me a sympathetic look.

"We can make things better. Together, we can take over the villain empire. We'll make them listen to us." She painted the picture in front of me. "They won't hurt anyone else. Once this is all over, you'll never be in a position where you have to fight or kill again."

I hesitated. "You act like it's just that easy, like people won't get hurt."

"No war is without its casualties. But the end will justify our means." She assured me. "If a few people get hurt in order to make the world a safer place, it's worth it."

I paused, thinking her offer over. I wasn't stupid – I knew she wasn't doing this for world peace. My mother wanted to control the world, that was a simple truth I'd known my whole life, even before I knew what she was capable of. And giving her that kind of control, it was a dangerous risk. But then again, she had gotten into all of this because a villain dared to threaten her little girl. Maybe she wasn't all bad…maybe this could work out the way I hoped. Maybe this could end exactly as we planned. Sure, there would be obstacles in order to achieve my goal, but I'd always been rather adaptable. I could handle it…right?

I stood there, conflicted for a long time, before thinking back to why I got in contact with her in the first place. "One condition." I eventually said. She smiled.

"Oliver and Kaz," she said my boyfriend's name reluctantly, obvious displeased to include him, "will not be harmed during any of this."

"Not just them. Skylar, Calla, Bree and Chase too. And Geminus as well." I added as an afterthought. Mom gave me a look.

"I'll do my best, but I can't order my minions not to defend themselves. You know they won't understand what we're doing." She reminded me. I nodded, acknowledging the truth in her words.

"Leave that to me. I'll either convince them…or I'll figure it out." Maybe things wouldn't have to go too far. Maybe this could work.

**Oliver's POV**

"Hurry up!" I insisted as I blasted MISS' control unit with another icy wave. The AI blasted through it again, releasing another wave of laser blasts in my direction.

"I don't know what's wrong with the code!" AJ protested, typing on his IPad furiously.

"Well, figure it out!" Bree snapped at him as she sped around the room, trying to draw MISS' fire. "We can't keep this up forever!"

I nodded in agreement, dropping to the ground to avoid another laser blast.

"Let me try something!" AJ insisted. "Buy me some time!"

"What do you think we've been doing?" Bree snapped.

"Alright, what if we burnt her out?" I suggested, glancing at her. "Make her use up all her power."

Bree nodded breathlessly, then began to speed around the room once more, this time at a slower pace so that MISS could lock onto her. I ran in the other direction, making sure to keep myself in MISS' line of fire. She started firing at us, and we avoided the blasts as best as we could, with Bree speeding forward, just out of reach and me using my cryoblast to nullify the shot. But after about twenty minutes, she had still not run out of juice. "I don't think this working!" Bree shouted, skidding to a stop, obviously intending to take a break. Unfortunately for her, MISS took advantage of her pause and shot a blast towards her. The laser hit Bree in the shoulder, knocking her to the ground.

"I don't think she'll run out of the power. She works on the generator." AJ offered. I stopped and stared at him.

"And you tell us that now?" I demanded, ducking just in time to avoid one of MISS' lasers. I glanced at Bree as she climbed back to her feet. "You okay?"

"No. Back up." She ordered. She looked angry enough that AJ and I did as we were told, stepping out of the way. She clenched her fists and her body was enveloped in a green glow. She used her thermonuclear body blast on the control unit, shattering it into pieces. The remains of the control unit clattered as they hit the consol, while Bree rubbed her hands together, a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Problem solved." She declared. She turned on her heel. "I'm going for fro-yo. See ya."

AJ and I watched her go in awe. After a moment, AJ spoke up. "She scares me sometimes."

"She scares all of us." I agreed.

**Dani's POV**

"Well, look who's back early." I smiled as I walked into the lobby of Davenport Tower. Calla and Chase were standing at the elevator doors, waiting for the car to come down to greet us.

"Hey, you miss us?" Calla teased, hugging me. I rolled my eyes.

"Us, no…" I commented sarcastically, giving Chase a quick hug too. "So, how was Rome?"

"You knew?" Calla demanded. I laughed.

"We all did, and Chase bribed us all to keep quiet." I commented as the elevator finally reached the main floor. I helped them bring their luggage into the elevator car. "So, how was it?"

"Amazing. Absolutely beautiful." Calla gushed.

"Well, what we did see. We didn't spend all our time sightseeing." Chase added with a smirk. I laughed lightly. "So, what did we miss?"

"Not much." I shrugged as we made it to our floor. Chase pulled out his key card and slid it through the scanner.

"Good. I'm glad you guys didn't get into any trou…" He trailed off when he opened the door. The entire penthouse was trashed; the couch was turned over on its back, the TV was broken, there were wall hanging and decorations shattered along the ground, and there were singe marks, as if from a fire, everywhere. And in the middle of all that chaos stood Kaz and Skylar, both of whom were disheveled as if they'd just fought a dozen shapeshifters. "What in the world?"

"Oh." Skylar looked at us surprised. "Hey guys."

She and Kaz looked around at the mess. "Uh…" Kaz chuckled guiltily. "Welcome back?"


	2. Cabin Fever

**Kaz's POV**

"C'mon!" Oliver protested as my character raced past him in the game, taking out the alien enemy before he could.

"C'mon, give our team a chance, dude!" Dani complained as well, sending me a quick glare. "Take out your own bad guys."

"Ha!" I smirked cheekily as the time ran out and my team, the team with the most points, took victory.

"I'm bored of playing this game." Dani complained, tossing her remote control onto the couch. "We've been playing it for three days straight."

"Well, it's been raining for three days straight and there's nothing else to do." Oliver pointed out with a sigh. "Besides, we've been playing this game for three days straight. You spent the last two days in bed with the flu."

"Ugh, don't remind me." She rolled her eyes, slumping back on the couch. "Being sick sucks."

"Yeah it does." I agreed. Bree came walking down the stairs then.

"Ugh, is it still raining?" She complained, glancing outside. She sniffed lightly, heading into the kitchen, where Skylar was pouring over a stack of magazines. "Where're Calla and Chase? They weren't upstairs."

"He's at Mighty Med 2.0, re-calibrating the bionic capsules that Davenport just delivered, and she's down in Mission Command, working on something." Dani offered. "She tried to explain it, but she used a lot of big words and talked about stuff like sub-particles and a radiation detector."

"I think Chase had the right idea, getting out. I'm going crazy in here." Skylar commented. "I hate the rain."

"Well, I don't blame you." Chase declared, walking in. I chuckled, bemused at the sight of him – he was sopping wet, dripping rain drops onto the floor. "It's raining buckets out there."

"Here." Dani laughed lightly, getting off the couch. She walked up the stairs, then came back a moment later, carrying a large, folded up towel in one hand. She tossed it to him, then headed into the kitchen. "Don't drip over the floor."

"Thanks." He nodded at her, beginning to dry his hair. "So, have you-"

"Achoo!" Oliver cut him off, sneezing loudly. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, leaning over the edge of the couch for a Kleenex.

"Great. Twin syndrome." I muttered. Chase glanced at me.

"Twin syndrome?" He repeated.

"Every time one of them gets sick, the other gets sick right after." I explained.

"That's not true." Oliver objected.

"Yes, it is." Skylar insisted.

"She's got a point, Ollie." Dani agreed, beginning to help Bree with dinner. She looked out the window, watching as the storm clouds accumulated over the city. "Look, I'm sure the weather will clear up soon. Until then, I say we bunk up here and wait it out."

I smirked, my mind already whirling. We COULD do that, or we could do something a little more fun.

**Oliver's POV**

I grumbled to myself as I stumbled out of my room, my head feeling overly stuffed and my body aching. "I hate twin syndrome."

"Sorry." Dani met up with me in the hall, an apologetic smile on her face as we walked down the stairs. "Didn't mean to get you sick."

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes. I paused at the end of the stairs, frowning. "Uh, you okay?"

Bree raised her head, removing the towel over her head and revealing the bowl of hot water under her head. "You made me sick." She growled, her voice congested. Dani glanced at me.

"I can't tell which one of us she's glaring at." My sister whispered.

"Assume it's both and walk away." I whispered back. We both took a step back up the stairs, but stopped when the front door opened up and Kaz walked in, carrying a brown paper bag.

"Breakfast!" He called, walking past us to drop the bag on the table. "Guys, come and get it!"

"Why'd you go get breakfast?" Dani inquired, curious.

"And since when are you up before seven?" I added, looking inside the bag. I grimaced, my stomach turning, when I realized that they were all breakfast burritos. Suddenly, the nausea I'd been battling since I woke up rose to my throat. Swallowing thickly, I closed the bag, just in time to see Chase and Skylar come walking down the stairs.

"No thanks." Skylar shook her head, sitting on the couch. "My stomach's feeling off."

"Great, Dee, you got everyone sick." I accused lightly before glancing at Chase. "Calla feeling under the weather too?"

"Actually, she wasn't in bed when I woke up." He admitted. "I thought she was down here."

"No, sorry." Bree shook her head. "Maybe she left?"

" _Actually, Miss Calla is down in Mission Command."_ MISS, newly rebuilt by the two geniuses, offered.

"I'm gonna go see what she's up to." Chase decided.

"We'll come. Let's see what mad scientist is working on." Skylar offered. We all went to follow her, but Kaz grabbed Dani's hand, stopping her.

"Actually, you and me, we have plans." He informed her. She looked at him, eyebrows raised.

"Well, aren't you full of surprises." She commented, smiling in confusion. She let him lead her to the penthouse door. "Uh, we'll see you guys later!"

**Kaz's POV**

"Where are we going?" Dani asked for the hundredth time as I led her through the wet alleys. It would have been faster if we'd taken the main roads, but I couldn't find an umbrella, so taking the alleys would keep us drier.

"I told you, it's a surprise." I reminded her.

"Then at least tell me what the occasion is." She insisted. "I mean breakfast, which I didn't get to eat, by the way, and now you made plans for us. Why?"

"Why do you girls always have to ask so many questions?" I retorted. She looked at me.

"Because if we don't, then that's when we end up stranded in the middle of nowhere with an empty tank of gas." She pointed out with a laugh. "Now, seriously, do you win the lottery, or…I know it's not your birthday, and Christmas isn't until next month, so, what's up?"

"I just thought, between Roddiseus and his crazy family, and cleaning up after that big fight, and you doing stuff for Liv, and us all setting up Mighty Med 2.0, we haven't had much time to ourselves, so I thought we deserved a date."

"Yes we do." Dani agreed with a bright smile. "So, you wanna tell me where you're taking me?"

"What part of surprise don't you get?" I demanded, turning the corner.

"The part where we've been walking around for half an hour and I'm wet and cold and I really hope this date you've planned is inside."

"This way." I chuckled and ducked out of the alley, onto the sidewalk. I led her up to a small, unassuming building, and, ignoring the CLOSED sign, I pushed open the door.

"It's closed. Are we breaking in?" I smiled at the curiosity in Dani's voice. She thought I could be performing a felony, and she sounded excited.

"No. Sorry to disappoint." I replied. "Apparently, we saved the owner, Frank, during Roman and Riker's attack." I led her through the small hallway to the main part of the building. "He wanted to thank us, so he said we could use this place whenever we wanted."

"Whoa." Dani grinned, looking around the place. It was like one of those old, retro arcades, with games lining the walls. Just from the entrance, you could see some of the older ones, like Pac-Man, as well as some of the new ones, like that cool Walking Dead shooting game. "Sweet."

"So you like?" I grinned. She beamed.

"I like." She agreed, grabbing my hand. "Ten bucks says I can kick your butt at Storm Racer!"

"In your dreams!" I laughed, following her to the game.

**Oliver's POV**

When we got down to Mission Command, it became obvious that Calla had indeed been down here all night. There were scrap papers everywhere, along with a large white board, almost indecipherable scribbles written across it. Calla herself was sitting in the middle of the room, next to a microscope and several colorful vials, along with a few devices I couldn't name. "Is anyone else getting a distinctly Beautiful Mind vibe?" I questioned, only-half joking. Calla didn't even look up, scribbling down details about whatever she was doing on a notepad.

"Baby?" Chase put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them gently. "What are you doing?"

"Working." She mumbled lightly. "Busy."

Chase glanced hesitantly at the multiple coffee mugs discarded on one of the other consols. "Are you sure you don't want to take a break?" He asked. She put down her pencil and then pulled the microscope.

"Look." She instructed. He frowned.

"Maybe later." He told her. "Right now, you look like you need a nap."

"Another coffee, actually." She corrected. "You wanna know why I pulled an all-nighter? Look."

Sighing, Chase looked into the microscope. I glanced around the room, frowning as I tried to make out Calla's writing. It was messy, having clearly be written in a haste, and what words I could make out were not part of my vocabulary. "No way." I looked back at Chase as he stared into the microscope. He tore his gaze away from it to stare at his wife. "That's not…it can't be."

"It is." Calla gave him a wide grin, eyes alit with excitement.

"Can't be what?" Skylar asked the obvious question.

"Zano fuel." For some reason, they were both really excited about that. Bree looked at them, surprised.

"Zano fuel?" She repeated, as if the word was familiar to her. "Like, seriously?"

"I'm Queen of the geniuses." Calla gasped, clapping her hands together excitedly.

"What is zano fuel?" I asked, confused.

"Right, sorry. You guys weren't there." Calla sighed. "Okay, so about five and a half years ago, we were in the lab, preparing for a mission, when Leo suddenly appeared in front of us. The thing is, he wasn't our Leo. He was Leo, from seven years in the future."

"He time travelled?" I looked at them, shocked. Chase nodded.

"While he was there, he explained some of the details of how he came back, and let us take a look at his fuel." Chase added.

"I've been trying to replicate it for years now, but I didn't have the proper ingredients." Calla continued. "Until now." She grabbed a marker, turned the white board around to show us the empty side of it. "Okay, so I've been working with those rocks I got from Caldera. Now, I melted some of them down because I wanted to see how strong an alloy it would make, and I realized that it wasn't like anything on our periodic table. So, figuring that I could introduce a new element to the world, which technically, I did. I'm calling it Caldaria. Anyway, when I went to figure out how many protons it had, I found this."

Using the marker, she drew two circles on the white board, one smaller and inside the other. Then, she drew small dots scattered between the two circles. "Okay, so these are where the neutrons and protons are." She explained, pointing at the smaller circle. "The electrons circle this line." She continued, gesturing at the other circle. She then pointed at the tiny dots in between the circles. "But these, they aren't electrons, protons, or neutrons."

"Then what are they?" Bree asked, confused. Calla smirked.

"Well, I'll give you a hint. They're vibrating at over 300 million miles an hour, way faster than anything else on this planet." She smirked.

"They're moving faster than the speed of light." I realized. I frowned, trying to remember the right word for particles that moved faster than the speed of light. "They're tachyonic particles."

"Exactly. Oh," She glanced at Skylar and Bree, realizing they may not know what they are. "Tachyonic particles are particles that could move at the speed of light. Now, they were considered to be hypothetical because they disobey the laws of physics, but I guess Caldera and other planets outside our solar system have their own version of physics."

"Okay, that's cool, I guess, but what does that have to do with time travel?" Skylar questioned. Calla shrugged.

"Well, the details are complicated, but tachyons can be used to build an tachyonic antitelephone, which sends messages between two time zones. Now, theoretically, if I can harness that kind of tech, I can expand it to send items and, eventually, people back in time." Calla shrugged. "At least, that was my hope."

"Was?" Chase frowned at her. Calla sighed.

"I don't have enough rocks, and with Caldera still at war…" She gestured at Skylar, who smiled apologetically.

"Which means you can't get any more." She realized. Calla nodded.

"Hence why I sent the entire night trying to replicate the formula." She sighed, leaning on her elbow. Suddenly, Bree sneezed. Calla looked up at her, a mildly offended look on her face. "Out."

"What?" She questioned.

"Get out before you screw with my findings. You could corrupt my samples, and I'll lose what I do have." The genius accused, pointing towards the door. "Out."

"Fine." Bree waved her hand dismissively and walked towards the door. Then, Skylar sucked in a breath, her eyes widening as she tried desperately to hold in a sneeze. Thinking quickly, I put my finger under her nose, hoping it would help.

"We're going to go too." I decided. Skylar nodded, moving my hand away as the need to sneeze disappeared.

"We're all going to go." Chase added. He put his hands on Calla's shoulders and gently pulled her from her seat. "C'mon, I'm taking you to bed."

"You know, if I hadn't just spent the last 34 hours staring at molecules, I'd turn that into a dirty joke.' She commented, defeated as she followed us up to the main floor. Skylar slumped down on the couch as Chase took Calla upstairs.

"You alright?" I asked her. She shook her head before dropping it into her hands.

"My head feels achy, my nose is clogged, and I'm pretty sure my stomach is doing somersaults." She complained. "I hate that I'm vulnerable to Normo sicknesses."

"Want me to get you something for your stomach?" I offered. She shook her head again.

"Dani didn't get this sick." She complained.

"Actually, she did and just hid it." I commented. I frowned; Dani usually didn't try and hide something like that. In fact, when she was sick, she usually camped out on the couch and gave us these pitiful looks until we tried to make her feel better. Then again, she was acting a little strange lately, between doing more secret stuff for Liv and building up her mental barriers higher than they used to be. Then again, maybe her being sick just made her crankier or something and she was just trying to get her space.

**Kaz's POV**

"Oh my God, I hate you." Dani complained as I beat her for the third time at air hockey.

"Oh, please, you love me." I retorted, smirking. She rolled her eyes and was about to reply back when she got a text. Grabbing her phone, she read it, and for a brief moment her smile faltered. Then, as soon as it disappeared, her smile was back. "Who is it?"

"Liv." She replied with a sigh.

"About that secret project of yours." I commented. She gave me a look. "Look, it's not exactly a secret that you're keeping secrets." She looked surprised. "Like I haven't noticed how often Red's sending you on little mission. I mean, just last week you missed the entire MISS-debacle because you were out running an errand for her."

"It's…it's complicated, Kaz. I'm helping Alivia take down a big bad and she needs my help. But the more people that get involved, the harder it's going to be." She insisted. I gave her a look. "Kaz, look, it's just safer this way."

"But why does she need you to do all of this? She's got a whole team that she can use." I grumbled. Dani gave me an apologetic smile.

"I'm the only one who can do what she needs." She said. "Kaz, I am asking you not to pry. Please."

"Fine." I agreed reluctantly.

"Thank you. And hey, if I get in over my head, I will come straight to you." She told me. "I promise."

"Okay." I guess that was something. She smiled.

"Good. Now c'mon. I want a rematch." She declared, hopping between both feet, getting pumped.

"I've beaten you three times. Don't you think you've had enough?" I asked teasingly, getting back into the spirit of the date.

"Nope!" She insisted petulantly. "Not until I beat you."

"Then we're going to be here all day." I replied. She shrugged.

"Then I guess we will." She agreed, smirking.

**Oliver's POV**

"This sucks." I complained, rubbing the bridge of my nose. My head was throbbing painfully, and my entire body ached as if I'd just taken a beating. The brightness from the lights weren't helping. Groaning, I dropped my arm on top of my face, trying to block it out. "I feel like I'm dying."

"Don't be so dramatic." I heard Chase say. I removed my arm in time to see him place a steam bowl in front of me. I grimaced and turned my head away. "You'll feel better if you eat something."

"Can't stomach it." I retorted, feeling my stomach turn.

"Dude, you're a doctor, so I shouldn't have to explain this to you, but you feel sick because your stomach is as empty as it is." Chase reminded me. When I refused to move, he sighed. "Eat it and I'll let you and Kaz borrow the cyber cloaks. I know you've been wanting to use them for some sort of prank."

"Ugh, fine." I reluctantly sat up and grabbed the bowl off the table. Chase nodded, then moved to sit next to Bree, trying to coax her into eating. Surprisingly, despite her usual stubbornness, Bree took the bowl without much of a complaint. I took a small sip of the soup, then licked my lips. "This isn't bad."

"It's Tasha's secret recipe." Bree explained, eating hers. She looked a little worse than earlier, but not that much. Just a bit paler. "She used to make this for us whenever we were sick."

"That's nice." Mom would kinda just leave us to ourselves. Something about not wanting to get sick herself. "Hey, where's Skylar?"

"In the bathroom, worshipping the porcelain god, if you know what I mean." Calla commented, walking out from the bathroom. She grabbed a hand towel and wet it. "By the way, did you know that Calderan vomit is acid? Not sure I needed to know that, but interesting nonetheless."

"This is Dani's fault." Bree complained. "She got us sick."

"But AJ got her sick." Skylar pointed out, stumbling out from the bathroom. Calla gave her a sympathetic look and handed her the towel. Skylar dropped onto the couch next to me, wiping her mouth. She sneezed loudly and accidently spitting out a blob of acid spit. It hit the wall, burning a hole in it. "Oops."

"Well, that's disgusting." Bree commented. Calla walked over, carrying water bottles. She sighed and shook her head, handing them over to us.

"Can't we go one week without causing some damage to our home?" She questioned rhetorically.

"This is good." Skylar commented, sipping at her soup. "Chase, Bree, your step-mom is a genius in the kitchen."

"Soup is, like, the one thing she can cook." Calla assured us. "Though, apparently, her roast beef is just as good."

"Please, you should hear what Eddy has to say about her roast beef." Bree rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure he's written songs about how bad it is."

"Ironic, seeing as he doesn't eat." Chase added. Skylar and I exchanged looks, briefly wondering who Eddy was. But neither of us really cared at this point.

**Xxx**

"You know what I don't get?" Bree asked curiously. It was much later, and by now, Skylar, Bree, and I were all curled up on the couch, surrounded by Kleenex boxes, empty soup bowls, and a garbage can that had come in handy much earlier. Calla had gone up to bed, while Chase cleaned up the kitchen. "With all your technology at Mighty Med, how come you guys haven't found a cure for the flu yet?"

"Well, we have, actually, but it doesn't work on every species." I shrugged. "Humans like us and humanoids like Skylar…we're out of luck."

"Who's out of luck?" Kaz opened the door to the Penthouse, Dani following him in with a dark green stuffed dolphin in her hands.

"Us." Skylar sighed, laying her head on my shoulder. Dani smirked.

"Well, it only took me 24 tries, but I finally beat Kaz at air hockey." She declared, holding up her stuffed dolphin.

"And then she made we win her that in one of those arcade claw games." Kaz added. He kissed her on the cheek, then headed into the kitchen. "Hey, soup."

"That's ours." I told him. "You're not sick, you can make your own food."

"Cranky." Dani accused lightly. "But, uh, sorry I got all of you sick."

"Nah, we've decided that it's AJ's fault." Skylar assured her. "So, how was your date?"

"It was fun." Dani smiled brightly. "I think I needed it."

"We all need a break." Bree commented. She raised her head. "Hey, next week? Girl's week away from the Penthouse?"

"Sounds fun." Skylar agreed. I looked at her.

"What about us? Why do you guys get all the fun?" I questioned.

"Because we're prettier than you." My sister teased, laughing even as I threw my Kleenex box at her.


	3. All I Want for Christmas

**Dani's POV**

"Deck the halls with balls of holly, fa-la-la-la-la la-la-la-la." I sang, wrapping a string of popcorn around the pine tree Kaz and Skylar had dragged in yesterday. Calla, who was trying to work on her laptop, sent me an annoyed look, to which I responded by singing even louder.

It was December 24th, the day before Christmas, and everyone was pretty excited. Between the Secret Santa shopping and the decorating, it had been a pretty busy couple of weeks. Busy, but relatively happy. Even villains, mother included, seemed to be taking a vacation. In fact, the holidays seemed to be about go off with almost no problems. Almost…

"Kaz, that's a stupid idea." Calla and I simultaneously rolled our eyes at the sound of Chase's idea. Kaz's family had always celebrated the holidays a little differently – not that I complained; the couple of times Ollie and I spent Christmas with the Broadmans were some of the best Christmases we'd ever had – and apparently, Chase wasn't a fan of any of the admittedly very strange traditions Kaz was trying to include. Deciding to let them battle it out, the rest of us had pretty much been ignoring them.

"What? No, it's not." My boyfriend insisted, following Chase into the kitchen.

"You want to hide a pickle in the tree." Chase pointed. Kaz looked at him, confused. "We are not hiding a pickle in the tree!"

"Why not? It's tradition!" Kaz protested, bewildered. Thankfully, before the argument could turn serious, the front door swung open and Bree and Jaden walked in.

"Guess who just got in from the airport?" Bree sang, even though guessing would be irrelevant at this point.

"Hey." Calla put her laptop down and ran to her brother. He hugged her tightly for a moment, then pulled away and fixed her with a skeptical look.

"Time travel, seriously?" He questioned. Calla rolled her eyes at his disapproving tone, laughing a little. "Do you not remember any time travel movie? They almost never end well."

"Relax, Jay. It's not like it'll work without me getting my hands on any more Caldera rock, and according to Skylar, that's impossible, so you don't have to worry."

"Good." Jaden sighed in relief. "The last thing any of us need is for you to go back and time and stop someone important from being born, or inventing something important before the real guy does it."

"Please. I know that if I crack time travel that I'm only allowed to observe and not interfere." Calla promised him, walking back to the couch. "Any idiot knows that getting involved with the past just spells disaster."

"Good." Jaden agreed as Calla sat down and began to type at her computer, sending some email to one of her coworkers at Davenport Industries.

"So, Jaden, how long are you staying?" Ollie inquired. Jaden hesitated.

"Uh, not sure yet." He admitted. "Uh, so how's the secret Santa going? I hear it's going better than ours at the Academy."

"What happened at the Academy?" Skylar asked, walking downstairs with Ollie.

"Well, last year most of the students got confused, because they weren't sure whether they were receiving gifts from the people whose name they drew, or buying one for them, and Adam, Spin, Bob, and Daniel were encouraging the confusion, which didn't help." The older boy explained. I glanced at my phone, hearing it vibrate. "What about you guys?"

"Well, we were smart. Everyone has two people to buy gifts for, plus their significant other." I explained while reading the text. Frowning, I reached for my bag. "Speaking of which, I still have to go buy mine."

"You haven't bought them yet? Dee, I'm not sure what stores will be open today." Ollie scolded. I waved him off.

"I'm sure I'll find something open." I lied. I'd bought my gifts last week – a How to Speak Klingon book for Calla, a Captain America Watch for my brother, and the entire history of Mighty Comics for Kaz. Still, I couldn't think of a better excuse for my disappearance than last minute shopping – I doubted 'I'm going to sneak off to meet up with our super villain mother' would go over all that well. "I'll catch you guys later." I told them, heading out.

As I headed towards the coordinates she sent me, I found myself wondering when it had become so easy to lie to my friends and family.

**Calla's POV**

"So, you're not going to admit that you're my Secret Santa?" Kaz questioned, grilling me. Apparently, he didn't get the part about it being a secret. Either that, or he didn't like the secret part. He'd been trying to guess all week which two people drew his name, and though most of the team knew it had been Skylar and I, none of us were dumb enough to actually tell him.

"Well, I can't really admit a lie, can I?" I teased. He scowled, much to my amusement. I leaned my chin on my hand, gently discarding the book I'd been reading. "Alright, so could you please explain the pickle thing to me?"

Before he could, Skylar walked in, carrying a few boxes of cookie mix. "Okay, could someone explain why Bree is making me help her make cookies that we aren't allowed to eat?" She questioned, confused.

"She seems to think that if she overly-bribe Santa with cookies, he'll give her better presents." Jaden chuckled. Skylar frowned.

"You guys keep saying that word. Who is Santa?" She inquired, confused.

"Right, alien. No Christmas." Oliver realized. "Basically, Santa is this guy who comes in through the chimney while you sleep and leaves people gifts on Christmas."

"Wait, so a guy is supposed to break in here later, and we're supposed to trust that he won't steal anything?" Skylar questioned. We all exchanged looks.

"…Technically, yes." I agreed. Kaz and Oliver's phones both vibrated then. They both reached for them at the same time, but, judging by the way they both froze and went pale, I didn't think it was Dani asking for gift ideas. "What's wrong?"

"We have to go." Kaz untangled himself from the blankets on the couch as he and Oliver got up.

"Liv's at Mighty Med. Apparently, she's hurt really bad." Oliver explained. We all looked at them sharply.

"What? What happened?" Skylar demanded. Oliver shook his head helplessly.

"Not sure yet. The text just said 'Geminus, Mighty Med, critical'." He said in a hurry. "We've got to go. Send Dani to Mighty Med when she gets back."

"Will do!" Chase called after them as they raced out the door. We all exchanged looks. "I hope their friend's alright."

"It's Alivia; she's tough. I'm sure she'll be okay." Skylar insisted, though she still look worried. Bree came jogging down the stairs just then.

"Alright. Cookie time!" She declared, clapping her hands together. No sooner had she finished speaking than the lights went out.

**Dani's POV**

"You know, I have to admit, this subway station is getting a bit old." I commented to myself, walking through the tunnel into the usual meeting spot for Mom and I. She was already waiting for me, looking at her phone with a frown. "Merry Christmas, Mother."

"I see you're enjoying the holidays." She nodded at my red and green striped sweater. "That's what you decided to wear today?"

I rolled my eyes; figures that Mom would get back to criticizing my style choice sooner rather than later. "Well, I like it. And it was a gift from Ollie."

"I see." She still didn't approve of my clothing, but if I lived to impress my mother, I wouldn't be the person I was today, so I could care less what she thought of my sweater.

"So, I thought you mentioned you were moving your operation." I commented, looking around. "You and I both know that this subway station can't be what you planned on for your secret lair."

"You are right; we've moved our main base to somewhere more comfortable." She admitted.

"Where?" I inquired. She gave me a look. "Oh c'mon! I think I deserve to know."

"I believe you do, but I have to think about what this will look like to my employees." She told me. "You are still part of the Elite Force, after all."

"I'm on your side." I told her. "How do I prove that to you?"

"Your time will come. Soon, you will have to choose, publicly, which side you've chosen." She explained.

Publicly; the word echoed in my head. Publicly meant I would either have to betray my mother and lose everything I'd been working towards, or betray my team in a way that they would never forgive me for. It wasn't supposed to turn out like that. It was supposed to be easy, and no one was supposed to get hurt. Not for the first time, I wondered how good of an idea this all was.

"Is that why you called me here?" I asked, swallowing thickly.

"No. I need some information." She told me. "I need to know about the other superheroes. Their strengths, their weaknesses, their locations-"

"Why?" I questioned. "You said no one had to get hurt."

"They will fight against me, Danica. You must know that." She reminded me. "I need to know how best to protect ourselves from them."

"Or to attack them." I insisted defensively.

"People may get hurt, but I promise, no one will be killed. At worst, they'll be imprisoned." She reasoned. "And only until they're willing to play nice. Then we'll let them go and they can be on their way."

Well, she wasn't thinking murder. That was something, at least. "I-I don't have that information on me. It's all in the cyber desk and there's no way I can get it for you without getting caught by the others."

"I am aware, and I'd like to keep our involvement together a secret for the time being." She agreed. "So I sent in a team of my employees to retrieve it."

That made me stop. "What?" I demanded. "You sent some of your henchmen into our penthouse? We have a state of the art security system – they're going to get caught!"

"They can handle themselves, honey." She assured me.

"Not what I'm worried about. Ollie is in there! Kaz too, and the rest of my team." I argued. "If they catch them, there's going to be a fight."

"I've already ensured that neither Oliver or your little boyfriend will be in the vicinity." Mom told me. I frowned, not sure how she could have accomplished that so easily. "As for the rest of your team, they will not be seriously injured, only incapacitated."

"I have to go." I blurted out suddenly.

"Stay out of it, Danica." Mom began, but I shook my head.

"No, I…I have to go shopping." I said. "That's where I think I am now, and if I don't come back with gifts, they're going to be suspicious."

"You're upset with me." She observed. I sighed.

"Well, you sent some guys to attack my friends." I pointed out angrily. "And now I have to figure out a reason I'm not going to answer my phone when they try to call me and the boys back to base. So, yeah, I'm a little upset that you just made my life even more difficult." I sighed irritably. "I'll call you later."

I stormed out of the tunnel, trying to figure out what I was going to do about this.

**Calla's POV**

"What the hell?" Skylar questioned, frowning as we all looked around the room. "The power went out?"

"Apparently." Chase and I exchanged looks.

"Well, there's what, 2000 apartments in Davenport tower? Most of them probably have lit up Christmas trees like ours, so maybe all those lights combined blew the breaker or something." I reasoned.

"Makes sense." Chase shrugged.

"I'll go grab some candles." Bree offered.

"I'll help." Skylar offered, following her upstairs. I nodded and glanced at Chase.

"I'm going to go check to make sure that the power lines didn't get covered in ice. It could explain the blackout, but that turn dangerous fast if it is the cause." I told him. He nodded and grabbed his phone.

"I'm gonna text Oliver, Kaz, and Dani. Give them a heads up." He replied. I nodded and headed out onto the veranda. Snow had been falling steadily for the past couple of days, a nice treat from years of hot, Californian Christmases. Leaning on the edge of the veranda's wall, I peered over at the power lines below us. Even from this distance, I could tell that they were completely black, and therefore untouched by the snow.

Just as I stepped back from the edge, something slammed into me, throwing me roughly against the wall. Coughing as the sudden blow emptied my lungs, I stared up in confusion at my attacker. I recognized him instantly as Mort, the lizard-guy who kidnapped Dani and I a couple of years ago. "You!"

"Stay down." He told me. I heard crashing come from the Penthouse, letting me know that he wasn't the only intruder. "We don't want to kill you."

"Good luck with that!" I spat, pushing myself off the ground. Out of years of instinct, I reached my plasma gun, only to find that it was still inside.

"Ooh, little girl doesn't have her toy." He teased. I smirked.

"Don't need one." I replied, before simultaneously spinning around and activating my proton disks. I threw one directly at him, the proton disk slamming into his stomach and sending him flying backwards. He crashed through the glass pane window and into the kitchen. "Chase!" I raced into the living room to find him and Jaden fighting…Tank?

The former bionic student was indeed standing in our living room, glaring at the two boys. Already I'd missed quite a bit – one of the chairs had been turned on its side, my brother standing behind it, aiming my Concussion Blaster at Tank's head, while Chase recovered from a blow that looked like it hurt. My husband stood up, a little dazed, glaring at Tank.

Our former student let out a roar – he'd never been one to articulate anything in real words – then charged at Chase. Both Chase and Jaden reacted instantly – the former whipping out his bo staff and the latter taking a shot at Tank. Unfortunately, Tank geo-leaped away, reappearing at the other end of the room. The blast from my brother's weapon shot past where Tank had been standing and blasted the wall a foot away from me. "Shit, sorry CeeCee!"

"Behind you!" I shouted as Tank lunged at Jaden. I didn't get the chance to see what happened though, before Mort spit, literally spit, a glob of green goo at me. I tried to turn, to get out of the way, but it caught me in the arm and trapped it against the wall. Try as I might, I could not break my arm free.

"C'mon!" I protested in frustration. Trapped like this, I couldn't even use my proton disks properly, forcing me to watch as Mort teamed up with Tank to fight Jaden and Chase.

I pulled desperately at my arm, praying that whatever was keeping my arm pinned to the wall would give way so I could escape. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the boys fighting the intruders. Tank, on his own, wasn't dangerous enough to beat both of them, but combined with his new partner, they looked pretty hard to beat.

Mort was fighting my brother, expertly dodging the Concussion Blaster's attacks. One of the downsides to the weapon was that it was slow to reset and heavy to move, making it harder for Jaden to shoot a continuous stream of attacks. Chase, on the other hand, was using his bo staff to fend off Tank. Surprisingly, it was like the weapon wasn't doing anything as the former student deflected it. That must mean, along with his geo-leaping ability, he had his super strength back. Awesome, just…awesome.

Suddenly, we all heard a loud crash from above us, and it occurred to me that Bree and Skylar were still up there, looking for candles. Since they hadn't come down yet to see what was going on, I figured they must be fighting an intruder of their own. The question was, was that crash a good sign or a bad one?

I got my answer a moment later, when another one of our former students, Lexi, came running down the stairs. She paused on the final step, looking around at the fighting boys and smirked. "Good. Keep it up, boys. I just finished dealing with the girls." She tossed over her shoulder as she headed for the hyperlift. "I'll get what we came for."

"No!" I lunged forward, only for a sharp, painful tugging on my shoulder to remind me why I wasn't fighting. "Guys!"

Chase glanced at me in between dodging fists from Tank, then at Lexi in time to see her take the hyperlift down to Mission Command. Then, he made a split second decision. "Calla, duck!" He shouted, before spinning around and flinging his bo staff towards me. I dropped as low as I could manage and the bo staff cut across the top of hardened goo, cracking it just enough for me to break my arm free. "Go!"

He did a back flip over the fallen chair and landed just behind it, putting a little more space between him and Tank. I ducked past them, racing towards the hyperlift. I tossed him his bo staff as I went, smiling when he caught it with ease and spun back into a fight stance.

"Nice try, kid!" Mort snapped, leaping into the hyperlift just as the doors slid shut. He stood up straight, fists out and ready to fight, just as I pressed my back to a wall, holding a proton disk to his neck.

**Dani's POV**

A little over three months ago, Kaz and I were trying to figure out a new place for us to hang out, without the prying eyes of our team, my brother in particular. So, we'd started exploring and, to make sure we didn't get lost, mapping out the tunnels beneath Centium City. We found some pretty cool things down there, but eventually decided that maybe the tunnels weren't for us. We'd abandoned our search, but during all that time exploring the tunnels, I'd memorized the maps we'd made. As it turns out, that was a pretty smart thing to do. What would usually be a long drive through the crowded streets turned into a five-minute run through some less-than-cleanly underground passages.

I raced into Mission Command, though I still hadn't figured out what I was going to do when confronted with either the others or my mother's henchmen. I didn't have long to think, however. When I passed the entrance to the tunnels, I found myself face to face with a tall, dark haired girl wearing a black leather jacket and jeans. She was bleeding, I noticed, from a deep looking cut on her neck. A black eye was beginning to form on her left side – the only sign that she'd been in a fight at all.

She paused when she saw me, then smirked and turned back to the cyberdesk. "Ah, you're Bridget's brat, right?" She guessed as she activated the computer. "Name's Lexi. I thought you were supposed to be out or something."

"Came back early." I replied before looking around. Aside from us, Mission Command was completely empty. "The others?"

"Your team or mine?" She questioned, typing at the computer. "Most of them are still fighting upstairs. Bree and that alien girl are trapped in their bedroom. Should take them at least a few hours to get out."

"A few hours?" I questioned. She smirked cockily.

"Wooden doors are easier to open than carbonex." She said simply, before scowling. "Damn it!" She slammed her hands down on the cyber desk. "I'm decent with computers, but that Calla hyper-intensified the security."

"She's protective of her stuff." I defended her. "Look, I know my mom told you to get that information on the superheroes, but you need to go. They don't know about my connection to you guys, and you're going to blow my cover. And by time you get past Calla's security, they'll be down here."

"Well, we need that information, so what do you suggest?" She questioned, annoyed. I frowned, then, suddenly…it hit me. It was the perfect way to protect my cover, handle the Mom situation, and Mother would still consider the mission a success.

"I have an idea." I told Lexi, smiling.

**Calla's POV**

"Well, I see we're at an impasse." Mort observed, not at all shaken by how close my weapon was to his jugular vein.

"Really? I don't see it that way." I smirked, trying to appear more confident than I was. "This isn't your ordinary elevator, and the voice commands are endless. All I have to do is give the word, and it'll send me and me alone to deal with Lexi."

"Yes, it would." He agreed. "If the voice commands were working."

My smile faltered slightly. "Of course they're working." I lied.

"Not with the power out. Your generator back-up only powers the basic hyperlift operations and the lights in Mission Command." He reminded me. "Since I'm standing in front of the hyperlift controls, you're. And since Tank is keeping your two friends busy, and Lexi's already dealt with the speedster and Skylar Storm, you're all alone too."

I swallowed, processing what he said. I wasn't worried about the alone bit – I could handle myself just fine, thank you very much – but some of the things he said, he couldn't have possibly known. He couldn't have known that Oliver, Dani, and Kaz were all out of the Penthouse, nor could he have known about mechanical things like the hyperlift.

"How'd you know that?" I questioned sharply. He looked at me. "About the hyperlift, how'd you know that? Have you been watching us?"

"Didn't need to." He sneered. "Not when we've got someone on the inside."

I froze. No…no way. One of us, a traitor? That didn't make sense! We would never betray each other. We were a team, we were a family. "You're lying." I accused. Mort nodded.

"Maybe I am." He admitted. "But you can't take that chance, can you?"

With a cocky smirk, he slammed his fist into the down button and we speed towards Mission Command.

**Dani's POV**

The moment the hyperlift doors opened, I blasted Lexi full of electricity. Not enough to kill, but enough to send her flying across the room. Calla followed suit, using her proton disks to send Mort (I should have guessed he'd be here) racing across Mission Command. "I am getting really tired of people breaking in here." I told Calla. She nodded.

"Diddo." She agreed. "When'd you get back?"

"Just now." I lied. "The power was out, so I figured taking the tunnels and using the hyperlift would be faster than taking the stairs, and I found her on the cyberdesk. And seriously, Mort, what are you doing here?"

I looked at him, exasperated. He stood up, smirking at us. "You know what, I don't care." I decided, shooting a blast of electrical energy at the wall next to him. It left a scorch mark a couple of inches away, just close enough to convince Calla that was I was trying to hurt him.

"We're out of here." Lexi declared. She lunged at Mort, grabbed his hand, then geo-leaped away.

"Where'd they go?" I demanded, looking around.

"I don't know." Calla shook her head helplessly. "But I think they're really gone."

Her phone buzzed then and she answered it quickly. "Chase?" She let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah, us too. They just vanished…" She paused, listening. "Oh, Dani got back a couple of minutes ago…Probably still at Mighty Med. I'll check in with them later…what? Seriously?" She stopped and sighed. "Actually, it's Lexi; I shouldn't be so surprised. I think I've got something down here that'll work. We'll be up soon."

"What's wrong?" I questioned.

"Where do I start?" Calla questioned. She frowned and shook her head. "Sorry. Something Mort said to me."

"What did he say?" I questioned, frowning.

"That there's a mole. That someone's been passing along information to them." She told me. Damn, no wonder she looked so shaken up. And seriously Mort, are you trying to get me busted? "It's not true. It can't be true."

"Exactly." I agreed. "He was just trying to get in your head, throw you off your game."

"Exactly, unless…" Calla typed on the computer, and her frown turned to one of confusion to one of despair. "No, no, no…no!" Her eyes went wide. "They copied everything off the cyber desk onto a memory stick, then wiped the entire system."

"All the files?" I repeated. She nodded.

"Everything. Superhero files, our own personal files and notes…even MISS." She murmured. She paused for a moment, then a look of dread crossed her face. "My God."

"What?" I asked quickly.

"They didn't break into the system – I wrote the security system's code, there'd be a digital fingerprint. They had to have used a password. One of our passwords." She looked at me, eyes blown wide. "Mort was right."

"About one of us being a mole?" I questioned. "Calla, c'mon. Who would do that?"

"I don't know, but it's the only thing that makes sense." She frowned. "The only way into this system without tripping my security system is through our own passwords. And without MISS, there's no way to tell who did it."

"But a mole?" I insisted, shaking my head. "No way."

"I thought Mort was lying…I hoped anyway. But…" She glanced upwards, towards the ceiling. Bree, Chase, Skylar, and Jaden were all upstairs, oblivious to what Mort had told Calla. "Who? Why?"

She started to head for the hyperlift, but I stopped her. "Wait." I told her. "We can't say anything about what Mort said.

"Why the hell not?" She demanded, wrenching her arm away from me.

"Because, if one of them is a mole, and that's a big if, then we don't want to tip them off." I advised. "It'll make everyone paranoid of everyone. It's better to just keep this to ourselves for the time being. Too many people investigating each other will just get complicated."

She sighed. "You're right." She agreed reluctantly. I smirked. "I just…I hate lying to them."

"Who knows? Maybe none of them is the mole." I suggested brightly. "No need to worry them until we know for sure."

"Right. And I hope you're right about there not being a mole." She murmured. I nodded.

"I am sure that none of our friends is a traitor." I assured her, shoving my hands in my pockets. She nodded, then stepped towards the hyperlift. I followed her, unconsciously turning the memory stick in my pocket over in my hands.

**Calla's POV**

"So you're sure that Alivia was never at Mighty Med?" Dani questioned for the third time. Oliver gave her a reassuring smile. It had been a few hours since Lexi, Tank, and Mort's attack, and, after finally managing to get Bree and Skylar out of their room (Lexi had used her molecular manipulation ability to turn their door into carbonex, an almost unbreakable substance), we'd all sat down to discuss it.

"She was never there, and she's probably not even injured. Whoever sent us that message was trying to lure us out of here." He decided.

"They probably figured it would be easier to take five of us down than eight. They lured you guys away and got lucky with Dani being out at the time." Jaden mentioned.

"That may not have been luck. They may have been watching us." Dani added. She glanced at me and I knew we were both thinking the same thing: someone could have told them she was gone.

"What did they want?" Kaz asked.

"It's impossible to say, what with everything being deleted." I sighed before standing up to pace. "But that's not the important question."

"Then what is?" Skylar demanded. I turned to face her.

"Who are they working for?" I questioned. "I mean, none of them are big cheese material. Mort, as Kaz, Oliver, and Dani have said, is a henchman, not management. Lexi's more concerned about herself to create a team or anything, and I don't think Tank can even communicate in anything but grunts. Not to mention, they have nothing in common with each other."

"Except for us." Bree realized. I nodded.

"Exactly. So, I ask again, who are they working for?" I emphasized the question.

"Well, it has to be someone incredibly smart, with a knowledge of bionics." Chase commented. "We removed Tank and Lexi's chips ages ago. Someone had to rebuild them."

"Speaking of which, I thought they were in prison." Bree added.

"There was a break-out at that specific prison over a year ago." Jaden told her. "Adam, Leo, and the students were trying to track everyone down, but some slipped through the cracks."

"Well, we know who Mort used to work for." Skylar mentioned. She looked at the twins. "And your Mom has been quiet for too long not to be up to anything."

"But why would Mom be working with bionic people?" Dani questioned. "And why Centium City? Why here?"

"Because of us." Oliver realized. He looked at her. "She is a helicopter parent."

Dani didn't answer that. "She hasn't been in contact with you guys, right?" Chase questioned. They both looked at him. "Douglas would send us Facebook requests while he was on the run. I know not every villain is like him, but it's likely she might try to contact you, try to sway you guys to her side."

"We haven't heard from her." Oliver assured him.

"Let us know if she does." Skylar told them. "Okay?"

"Of course." Dani promised. "But we don't know for sure that it's her."

"No, but she is a possibility." Kaz told her, almost apologetically. She frowned and he gave her a smile. "Hey, we'll get her, okay? She won't get away with anything."

"Alright, well, I don't think there's anything more we can do tonight." Jaden decided, standing up. "So, I'm going to bed. Bree, you coming?"

"Absolutely." She agreed, taking his hand and following him up the stairs.

"Jay's right." Chase agreed. "We'll deal with the mess tomorrow."

"Boxing Day." I corrected. He looked at me. "We need a day off."

"Fair point. Boxing Day." He offered me his hand and I took it, heading upstairs with most of the others. Oliver stayed to help clean up a little bit – the broken glass from the window was everywhere – and Dani kept trying to call her friend Alivia, despite the fact that she was probably alright.

I tried to calm myself down, to relax, but even after a hot shower and a cup of tea, I couldn't sleep, knowing that there could be a traitor in our midst.

**Bree's POV**

"Crazy day, right?" I sighed, leaning my head on my hand and smiled down at Jaden. He nodded, chuckling.

"Lexi's back. I know how much you hate her." He commented, sitting up. I hugged the bed sheets closer to me, nodding.

"She's like…evil me. And she's faster too." I sighed.

"You mean she was faster. Before you got your upgrade." Jaden pointed out. He rolled on his side, reaching for his bag.

"True." I agreed. He sat back up.

"Alright, so…I know we said no gifts this year…" He began.

"No!" I protested, blushing. "No, Jaden. I didn't get you anything."

"It's okay, I promise." He told me, leaning forward to kiss me on the forehead. "Besides, this is for both of us."

"…Alright?" He held out his closed fist, then opened it to reveal a small, silver key. "Jaden?"

"I quit my job at the Bionic Academy." I looked up at his, shocked. "I have nothing against your Dad or anyone at the Academy, but everyone was kind of doing their own thing, and I really wasn't actually working. Davenport was paying me because he's loyal to his employees, but I wasn't really earning my keep."

"Alright." I frowned. "I guess that makes sense, but I don't get what they key has to do with this."

"I'm moving to Centium City next month." My heard fluttered and almost stopped at those words. "I'm going to take a couple of classes at the community college, get officially certified as a chef, then get a real job at a real restaurant."

"You're moving to Centium." I breathed. He nodded. "You're moving to Centium?"

"So we can be together." He added, smiling cheekily. "I got an apartment in town, but unfortunately, not in the building. Obviously, I'm not expecting you to move out or anything – the team is here, and so is everything else – but I thought you should have your own key."

"My own key." I repeated. "Jaden, you're moving to Centium City!"

"I'm guessing you like that part." He teased. Instead of answering, I placed my hand on the back of his head, guiding his lips to mine.

**Dani's POV**

"Here." I held the memory stick out to my mother. She looked at it, then took it.

"And this is?" She inquired, turning it over in her hands.

"The list of superheroes. Everything we know on them." I told her. She looked surprised. "Look, it's not a lot. With everyone so scattered, we pretty much just know their names. There's not much on their powers either, and with everyone moving so often, those locations are pretty outdated, but it's better than nothing."

"It is." Mom agreed. "Well done. I'm proud of you."

"Don't be." I told her. She looked at me, surprised. "I didn't do that for praise – I did that to save my cover. But if anyone questions my loyalty again, show them that."

Mom gave me a curious smile, and I realized that that would have been exactly what she would have done in my position; play the people I worked with like a game and turn the tables in my own favor. Maybe I was more like her than I thought.

"You want to see our new base." She remembered.

"I would." I insisted. She nodded.

"Very well. Not yet, but soon." She added the last part quickly. "Very soon."

"Good." I agreed, nodding to myself. The sooner I got into her inner sanctum, the better.


	4. Under Pressure

**Dani's POV**

"Well, that's the last of all that broken glass." Skylar announced, sweeping the remaining shattered pieces into a dustpan. She glanced at the broken window, a frustrated look on her face. "You had to throw him through the window?"

"Yes, yes I did." Calla retorted, walking down the stairs, careful of where she stepped. In the past few days, she'd been in a relatively bad mood, locking herself in Mission Command. I knew it was because of what Mort had said to her – if I hadn't known that the mole he'd been referring to was me, I'd be pretty on edge too.

She sat down at the kitchen counter and grabbed the box of Fruit Loops. "Alright, so good news. MISS is back up and running."

"And she's actually going to protect the place now? Because she kinda sucks at that." Kaz commented. Calla stared him down. "No offense."

"I had Dooley send me over my original schematics for her from the island. I just updated it and put her in – she should be good as new." Calla assured everyone.

"Good. Because until we know who Tank, Lexi, and Mort are working for, we're on high alert." Chase added.

" _Speaking of high alert, you have an incoming video message from Donald Davenport."_ MISS spoke up then, proving Calla's point.  _"Should I play it on the television?"_

"Please and thank you, MISS." Skylar replied. I stepped over to the stairs.

"Bree! Ollie!" I shouted at the two sleepy-heads. "Davenport's calling!"

"What's he want now?" Bree complained, speeding down the stairs, still in her pyjamas. Ollie followed behind her. We all sat down on the couch just as Mr. Davenport's face appeared on our TV screen. He had a serious look on his face, letting us know that this wasn't a social call.

" _Hey, are you guys alright? Jaden told me about the attack."_  He started with. I let out a sigh; figures, Bree's boyfriend's flight would have landed less than an hour ago, and Davenport already knew.

"We're fine. No one was seriously hurt." Bree assured him. He nodded.

" _Good. That's not why I called."_  He told us.

"Aw, so you really don't care?" Kaz teased, mockingly acting hurt. Mr. Davenport ignored him.

"I need some of you for a mission." He explained. We all exchanged looks. "A group of my best scientists have been sweeping the bottom of the Pacific, sweeping for carbonite minerals. However, we lost contact with them an hour and haven't been able to re-establish it."

"You want us to go check in on them?" Chase guessed. Mr. Davenport nodded.

"The submarine is already at the pier." He informed us. "Good luck."

The TV screen went black once more, Davenport signing off. "Uh, so we have a little problem." Chase began.

"Bigger than those scientists'?" Oliver questions.

"The sub is only big enough for four people. Three of us are gonna have to sit out." Bree told him.

"I will." I offered. I'd never been the biggest fan of the ocean, not since a near-drowning incident when I was four, and though I'd probably be fine in a submarine, I was hardly opposed to staying behind either. The others all stared at me. "What? The ocean sucks."

"I'll stay behind too." Calla added. "I've got some things I need to do after Mort, Lexi, and Tank's attack, and besides, Bree, Chase, you guys know how to operate the sub; you don't need me."

"She's right." Bree nodded.

"We'll come to." Kaz grinned, jerking his thumb at himself then at Ollie. He beamed. "Never been in a sub before. It sounds fun."

"Glad to see you're taking this seriously." Skylar commented, leaning back on the couch and reaching for a magazine.

"C'mon guys." Chase instructed. "Suit up."

He stood up and headed upstairs, Bree speeding past him and Kaz and Oliver following behind, joking around with each other. Calla stood up next and looked at me pointedly.

"Alright, c'mon." She jerked her head at the hidden entrance to Mission Command. "I want to show you something."

**Kaz's POV**

"I love how your dad just has a submarine lying around." I grinned, looking around at all the colorful and flashing buttons. Chase and Bree were in the front seats, the former controlling the sub while the latter worked the lights and occasionally flipped a switch for her brother.

"Don't touch that." Chase said suddenly. I looked over at Oliver, who guiltily drew his hand away from a particularly bright flashing green button.

"Sorry." He apologized sheepishly.

"Coming up on the scientists' submarine." Bree announced a moment later. Grabbing onto her chair, I looked past her, out the viewing window to see a long, dark-colored sub jutting out of a rock wall.

"No wonder Davenport can't re-establish contact." Oliver hummed thoughtfully. "How are we going to get them out?"

"That is a good question." Chase agreed, twisting around in his seat. "Alright, I've got a plan. Calla gave me her Geoleap Watch. We'll use that, along with Bree's Geoleap Bracelet, to get on board. Then we get the scientists out and complete our mission. Got it?"

"Easy as pie." Oliver agreed.

"Ooh, pie." I hadn't had breakfast yet. I licked my lips at the thought, deciding to make a stop at the bakery before heading back home.

"C'mon." Bree rolled her eyes. Chase handed Oliver the Geoleap Watch.

"Split up, get out as quickly as possible. We don't know why it crashed, and it could capsize, so stay close together in case you need a quick escape."

"You're the boss." I agreed, as Oliver strapped on the Geoleap Watch. Bree offered Chase her arm. He took it, then she pressed a button on the charm of her bracelet and the two disappeared. Oliver and I exchanged looks, then I grabbed his shoulder. He pressed down on the screen of the watch, and suddenly, we were no longer standing in our submarine, but in a small room bathed in red lights as a blaring alarm sounded off around us.

**Dani's POV**

"Dear God." I muttered, shaking my head. Calla could get a little obsessive when she gave herself a project, and this was a prime example of it. She'd taken one of the white boards out of storage and had set it up similarly to a crime board used by cops and detectives, with her 'suspect pool' featuring pictures of Perry, Douglas, and AJ. "You wanna tell me what this is about?"

"I've been thinking about this whole mole thing…" She explained. I froze, more than a little nervous, but then she continued. "And I don't think it's one of our team. At least, not the main team. We were all fighting Mort, Lexi, and Tank at the time that the list was stolen, except for Kaz and your brother, but they were still at Mighty Med, so they couldn't have gotten here in time. Besides, Mort tried to kill you, Oliver, Kaz, and Skylar, and Lexi and Tank, along with a friend of theirs, tried to convince the Academy to get rid of Bree and Chase. Why would any of us be working with them?"

"I don't know." I replied, though I knew it was a rhetorical question. She nodded.

"It wouldn't make sense. So, I started looking at other people who'd either have enough knowledge of the penthouse to know what would work on the generator, or who would have an access code to the cyberdesk." She continued, gesturing at the board. "Of the five auxiliary members of our team, Jaden and Mr. Davenport aren't even in the state, nor do they have motive to betray us."

"Leaving you with Douglas, AJ, and Perry?" I questioned. I wasn't sure how I felt about her suspecting the others when I knew it was me – on one hand, it drew suspicion away from me and kept myself safe from being found out, but on the other hand, I felt guilty that Calla was thinking that our friends, and Perry, might have betrayed us.

"Well, they all have knowledge of the penthouse, and AJ and Douglas have access codes to the cyberdesk. Perry doesn't, but honestly, she'd probably be able to figure it out or get it out of one of the boys. Not to mention, she's hardly the most trustworthy person, and Douglas has a history of being on the wrong side of things." She leaned against the cyberdesk, considering it.

"Or maybe there isn't a mole." I offered, still feeling guilty. "For all we know, they somehow managed to steal the codes, or they're better with computers than you think, and got the list that way."

"I doubt it. It's a possibility, but I can't figure out how they would have stolen that information." She shook her head. "So, you and I need to figure out which one of them is the mole."

"If one of them is." I added. She nodded. "Okay, is Douglas even in town?"

"Yeah, but he wanted to spend the weekend at some hotel with his girlfriend." She shrugged. "It could have been him."

"Or he could have been just having fun with his girlfriend." Logically, I should have been encouraging her to suspect the others, but it didn't feel right. I wasn't so sure if betraying the team in the first place was really my best decision, and I wanted to try and avoid screwing things up even worse in case I changed my mind about all of this.

"Well, we'll have to figure out if that's true or not. You in, or are you out?" She questioned, slightly exasperated. Clearly, I didn't have a real choice about this.

"I guess I'm in." I decided, albeit reluctantly. I guess I could use this opportunity to keep her from going too far, and to keep suspicion off of myself at the same time.

**Kaz's POV**

"Whoa." I grinned, looking around the submarine. "Wicked."

"Focus boys." Bree reminded us, poking her head in from the doorway. "Now c'mon. Most of the crew will be in the control room. Chase is already on his way up there."

"Alright, we're coming." Why'd she have to take the fun out of everything? Submarines were cool!

Oliver and I followed Bree up a hall, then a set of stairs leading into a room full of heavy machinery and about a dozen people. Chase was in the middle, talking to a group of the scientists.

"About time." One of them, a skinny, dark haired guy complained. "Davenport was supposed to send help hours ago."

"Dr. Ryan." Bree smiled while Chase rolled his eyes. "Good to see you."

"As I was saying, we're here to help." Chase told them. "We're going to geoleap you guys out of here."

"What about the information? We've spent months collecting data." Dr. Ryan, the apparent head of the research team, insisted. "We can't just abandon all of it."

"Well, you're going to have to. We don't have time to download all of it." Chase insisted.

"Well, I'm not leaving without it." Dr. Ryan insisted, stalking out the door, heading deeper into the sub. Chase groaned in annoyance.

"That guy!" Apparently, they knew each other, and this wasn't the first time he'd done something to piss the bionic genius off. "I swear…can't we just leave him?"

"Hey!" Some of the other scientists began to protest.

"How about-" Oliver spoke loudly, cutting the crowd off. Sighing, he started again once they'd quieted down. "How about Kaz and I go wit him. You guys take care of getting these guys out of danger and we'll save his ass, alright?"

"Good idea, Oliver." Bree agreed, stopping Chase from replying. "We'll contact you once we've finished up."

"C'mon." Oliver nodded to me. We started down the hall Dr. Ryan had just gone through, all the while, examining the submarine. Most of Davenport's new tech was crazy cool, but in the sub, it was ridiculously high-end.

"Hey, how long will this download take?" I questioned once we found Dr. Ryan in a room full of computers and data readers.

"Twenty minutes." He shrugged, plugging a hard drive into the computer.

"Great." I sighed impatiently. Oliver looked at me.

"Got somewhere to be?" He questioned. I shrugged.

"This is boring." I complained, leaning against the wall. "Ooh, where are the torpedoes? Those'll be fun to check out."

"It's a scientific submarine. We don't have weapons on board." Dr. Ryan told me. I groaned – okay, so maybe this thing wasn't that cool.

"I'm bored." I repeated myself. I looked at the young scientist. "How much longer?"

He looked at me, exasperated. "19 minutes and 35 seconds."

I sighed again, wondering if maybe I should have offered to help Bree and Chase with rescuing the other scientists. That'd be more fun, at least.

Suddenly, the ground beneath us jerked downwards, the whole room tipping to an uncomfortable angle. "What was that?" Oliver demanded, his hands stretched out to balance himself.

"The submarine must not be secure in rock wall." Dr. Ryan realized. I looked at him.

"How bad is that?" I questioned. He gulped nervously and looked at the download screen.

"Let's just hope this downloads fast." He replied worriedly.

**Dani's POV**

"This is a little excessive, isn't it?" I questioned, exasperated. Calla lowered her binoculars and gave me a look.

"No." She insisted, speaking to me as if I'd just said something really dumb. She raised the binoculars up to her eyes. I sighed and followed suit, watching Perry as she walked down the street. We were sitting on the veranda, trying to see if Perry was doing anything suspicious. Unsurprisingly, the former principal wasn't really up to anything (well, at least unsurprisingly to me. Calla had pretty much named Perry as her number one suspect). Aside from actually taking her cats on walks (seriously, this woman owned WAY too many cats), she wasn't doing anything that wasn't common for most people to be doing. To be honest, the most surprising thing about this whole thing was that Davenport just happened to have these super binoculars lying around in Mission Command.

"What are you guys doing?" I looked over my shoulder to see Skylar standing in the doorway. This must have looked pretty weird, the two of us leaning over the edge of the veranda with binoculars.

"Spying on Perry." I answered when Calla remained too focused on the task at hand. Skylar furrowed her brow, confused.

"Why?" She questioned. I shook my head helplessly, shrugging in response. "…Okay then. I'm heading to Mighty Med. I just got a message from Philip saying that Alan's there and wants to meet me."

"Alan?" I repeated, surprised. "Uh, see you later then."

"Yeah. Have fun…stalking Perry." She told us.

"Spying, not stalking." Calla corrected, not looking away from the binoculars. I sighed and dropped my binoculars.

"This is a waste of time. It's not like she's gonna go meet up with Mort and Lexi for coffee or something." I told her. I frowned, thinking. "Actually, I think Mort might be more of a tea guy. Not sure why, but I'm pretty sure he is."

"Well, if she's working with them, she'll slip up eventually." The girl genius reasoned. "After all, she's hardly the sharpest tool in the shed."

"Which is exactly why she can't be the mole." I insisted. "Look, if she was the mole, she would have given herself away. She would have been hanging around a lot, asking too many questions. We'd know it was her."

"You're right." Calla dropped her binoculars. "In order to keep this from all of us, they'd have to be incredibly smart."

"Well…" I wasn't dumb, but she was still giving me way too much credit.

"So it must be Douglas or AJ." She decided. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head.

"Well, I'm going to go check with his parents to see if he was home Christmas Eve, because watching him with these binoculars would be creepy and might possibly get us arrested." I told her. She nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea." She agreed, flushing in embarrassment as she fiddled with the binoculars. "I'll track down Douglas. We can interrogate him once you've confirmed AJ's alibi."

"Okay." I agreed as she started to walk away. Then what she said hit me. "Wait, interrogate him?"

**Kaz's POV**

" _Everyone's out. How the download coming?"_  Bree questioned. I glanced at the screen, which told me that the download was just over halfway done.

"Slowly." I replied with a sigh.

" _Well, if it's not done in 2 minutes, you need to get out of there."_  Chase instructed.

"It's going to take at least another eight." Oliver protested.

" _That sub's not stable guys. If it crashes, we might not be able to come get you."_  He warned us.

"We'll be fine. You worry too much." I told him, rolling my eyes. But my confidence faltered a moment later when the sub shook again. "Uh, how much longer?"

"Not soon enough." Dr. Ryan grit his teeth together.

"Then let's just go." Oliver insisted.

"No way. Davenport's paying me big time for this." He refused. "I'm not going to let him down."

Suddenly, the sub let out a terrifying creak. "That didn't sound too good." I muttered, glancing at Oliver. We should just bail before things went badly.

"We'll be fi-" Dr. Ryan began, but cut himself off when the sub suddenly started to move. It began to fall, albeit slowly, through the water. We were all knocked off our feet, the sudden descent catching us all off guard. Eventually, the submarine stopped movie with a thud that shook the entire structure. "What the hell?"

"I think the sub came free of the rock wall." Oliver commented. "God, no."

Water began shooting in from cracks in the hull. It wasn't a lot of water, but it was enough to make my heart beat a bit faster. "That's not good." I observed, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"Neither is this." Oliver called my attention over to him. He held up his arm, showing me the now shattered screen of the Geoleap Watch.

**Skylar's POV**

"Hey Philip." I smiled at the nurse as I entered Mighty Med 2.0. The large-headed nurse nodded at me in greeting before continuing to fill out paperwork, a frown on his face. Finding out that he'd survived the destruction of Mighty Med had been a real relief for the rest of us, especially when he accepted Oliver's offer to make him the Head Nurse of Mighty Med 2.0. "You seen Alan?"

"Rec Room." He replied, deep in concentration as he worked. I nodded and headed down the hall before entering the rec room. I liked the new one a lot – it was larger than the one at the original mighty med, with a few TV, more exercise equipment, and a lot more places to sit rather than just the one area. Music was constantly playing, coming from the old-fashioned jukebox Dani had dragged in here a few weeks after we opened. God knows where she found it, but it was surprisingly in good order and gave the place a bit more of personal touch.

In the center of the room, fiddling with one of the TV remotes, was a short guy with curly black hair and beady eyes. But when he turned around, I realized that Philip had made a mistake in assuming it was Alan.

"Hapax." I blinked in surprise at the superhero mentor. "I was expecting Alan."

"I'm afraid I'm not him. From what I understand, he's off with Geminus, on some sort of adventure." Hapax the Elder replied. "Though it has been many weeks since I've spoken to him."

"He's working hard at becoming a hero." I offered. He nodded thoughtfully.

"He's a lot like his father." He commented. I gave him a sad smile.

"I was sorry to hear that Nelson didn't make it." It wasn't fair, really. Alan spent so long looking for his father, only to get him snatched away from him only a month after he found him. Hapax nodded sadly.

"That's not what I'm here to discuss." He told me, clearing his voice roughly. He gestured towards one of the couches, motioning for me to sit. I did so, looking at him in confusion. "As you know, after Mighty Med fell, I returned to my home on Caldera, which, as you also know, has been torn apart by war."

"Has the Resistance gotten stronger?" I'd sworn I wasn't going to get any more involved with the situation, but it was still my home, and the thought of the war growing any worse than it already was broke my heart.

"No, not exactly. The situation has changed quite a bit since your last visit." He told me, his tone grave. He looked me in the eye. "Skylar, we need you to come home."

**Kaz's POV**

"No, no, no! The drive is broken!" Dr. Ryan protested, staring at the screen in despair.

"Yeah, like that's our biggest problem." I looked at him, shaking my head. "Dude, we need to get out of here, like, now."

Oliver nodded and activated his comms. "Uh, Bree, Chase? Kaz and I ran into a problem."

Surprisingly, all we got in response was static. Frowning, I tried. "Bree, Chase, come in."

Again, static. "That's even worse." I muttered. I looked at Oliver, starting to panic a little. "So, we can't get out of here, or call for help and now the submarine is filling up with water. You know, I'm starting to see Dee's point about the ocean being a place for 'people with a death wish'."

"Well, we need to figure out a plan." Oliver decided. The submarine creaked again and he gulped. "Preferably before this this crushes us. We have to be beyond the safe limit by now."

"Well, Bree and her brother will realize we're in trouble soon, right?" Dr. Ryan questioned. "Can't we wait for them to come get us?"

"A, I'm not sure if we can afford to wait, and B, if we're too far down to keep a stable communication line running, we're too far down for them to get a good read on our coordinates, and without the proper coordinates, Bree could end up Geoleaping into the middle of ocean. She won't risk that."

"Then what do we do?" I demanded. Oliver frowned, unsure. Then his face cleared. He turned to Dr. Ryan.

"Have you ever worked with geoleap tech?" He questioned hopefully.

"No, not really." Dr. Ryan admitted, to our despair. "But Calla Parker…Calla Davenport, sorry, sent me some specs on a prototype a while ago. I assume she was the one who built your watch?"

"Yeah, she's a member of our team." I informed him. He nodded and reached out for it.

"Hand it over. I know her engineering style and the basic components. If it's not broken too badly, I might be able to repair it." He offered. Oliver nodded and quickly removed the watch, handing it to him.

"Now all we have to do is try and keep the water from coming in." I looked at the several leaks, cringing when another one sprung from just above the busted computer. "Easy as pie, right?"

**Dani's POV**

"So, I just spoke to AJ's stepdad, and he said that AJ was with them over the weekend. And since they went to Switzerland to spend the holidays, I seriously doubt that he's our mole." I declared, re-entering the penthouse. Calla was sitting on the couch, looking almost disappointed.

"It wasn't Douglas. Turns out I was wrong about him staying in the city – he took his girlfriend, Dana, down to Mission Creek. Davenport told when he called to check on the mission status." She informed me, waving her phone at me before placing it down on the coffee table. She shook her head, a frustrated look on her face. "I don't get it. Who else could it have been?"

"I don't know." I lied, taking a seat next to her. "Maybe it was no one."

"I know you want to believe that, but…I don't know. Something's not right." She sighed. I gave her a look.

"What's that saying? Once you've eliminated all other possibilities, whatever is left must be factual, no matter how ridiculous it sounds? Yeah, I think that's it." I nodded to myself. Calla grimaced, shrugging.

"You got the gist of it." She allowed. I nodded.

"So, you already eliminated the main team from the suspect pool, and we know it wasn't Davenport, Douglas, Jaden, AJ, or Perry, so that just means that there isn't a mole, right? It's the only option left." I reasoned. She nodded. "Hey, that's a good thing."

"Yeah, I guess it is. I guess Mort just shook me up, is all." She agreed. She smiled at me. "It's a relief, I'll give you that. Can you imagine? One of us a mole?"

"Yeah…crazy…" I agreed half-heartedly as she got up. She headed into the kitchen, still talking about how ridiculous it was that she believed Mort, all the while my guilt increasing. Things were going to get pretty damn serious on the Mom front soon, and I knew I would be expected to make a choice. But I had everything I wanted here – my brother, Kaz, friends who trusted me. Was I really about to risk all of that? Could I take that chance that I'd lose all of this?

**Kaz's POV**

"This isn't working!" Oliver shouted, glancing briefly over his shoulder before freezing another leak in its tracks. This sub was trying to collapse in on itself, and it was all Oliver and I could do to keep it from killing us. Oliver had cut us off from the rest of the sub using a massive, thick wall of ice, hoping that if we enclosed ourselves in a small area, we might last a bit longer, while I used my powers to weld the metal together whenever the pressure tried to cause another leak.

It was working well enough for the time being, but the air was beginning to taste stale, and sooner or later, this submarine would crush us.

"Hey, does anyone see a screw driver? I need a really tiny Philips head." Dr. Ryan called as he inspected the Geoleap watch.

"No!" I snapped back. He sighed and began rummaging through the drawers in the overturned filing cabinets, desperately hoping for the tools he needed.

"Crap!" Oliver shouted suddenly as part of the ice wall broke away, allowing at least a few liters of water to flood in before he could refreeze it. The submarine groaned again, closing up a bit, threatening to collapse. "We need to get out of here, now!"

"Give me a minute!" Dr. Ryan snapped back.

"We don't have a minute!" I retorted. I looked at Oliver, praying he had a backup plan. "You know, being a hero seemed like a good idea when we were younger, but honestly, I could do without almost dying."

"Well, you might have to remove the 'almost' in that sentence soon." He replied, refreezing the ice wall to prevent it from collapsing again. The submarine creaked again, screws bursting loose at spots. "We're going to die in here."

"No we're not." Suddenly, Dr. Ryan grabbed hold of our shoulders, and then, we found ourselves standing in the center of our submarine. Our beautiful, not-about-to-kill-us submarine.

"Oh thank God." Oliver cried, falling to his knees. The other scientists, along with Bree and Chase, just gaped at us, shocked.

"We were just trying to locate your GPS signal. What happened?" Chase demanded, running over to us. Oliver and I exchanged looks.

"Dani's right; the ocean sucks." Oliver decided.

**Dani's POV**

"So, how was the mission?" Calla inquired as Chase, Bree, Kaz, and Ollie all walked into the penthouse. "And why are you two soaked?"

"Long story." "I hate submarines." Ollie and Kaz answered. Ollie went upstairs, presumably to change, while Kaz walked into the kitchen.

"So, how was your day?" He questioned, wrapping his arms around my waist and hugging me from behind.

"Good. We stalked Perry for a few hours." I replied. He smiled in confusion. "Long story. But I promise, I will never get as many cats as her."

"Liar. Every time you see a stray, Oliver or I have to stop you from adopting it on the spot." He accused. I laughed lightly, leaning my head back on his shoulder until he pulled away to grab something to eat.

"Oh, Dr. Ryan said to call him. Something about Project Tardis?" Bree looked at Calla in exasperation. "Why?"

"I need a nickname for my time travel project and it seemed appropriate." She explained with a shrug. "I asked Ryan to help me with some of the mechanics. Wait, he was on the sub?"

She and Bree headed upstairs to chat, while Chase went to change out of his uniform. I turned around to face Kaz, smiling.

"So, wanna tell me why you hate submarines all of a sudden?" I asked curiously. He shrugged, closing the fridge without grabbing anything.

"How about I tell you over dinner? Veggie burgers at Paco's?" He suggested. I smiled.

"Sure." I agreed, taking his hand and following him out the door.

Dinner was great, as always. Kaz ordered us some food while he told me of how he and my brother nearly drowned, grinning despite the near-death experience. I told him about my day, smiling every time he laughed at Calla's ridiculously determined attempts to figure out if we could really trust Perry, AJ, and Douglas. And as he went to pay, I made a decision.

Things were going to go badly really soon, and I was going to have to choose to either end my relationship with my mother or quit the team. And though that huge decision was sitting upon my shoulders, I wasn't going to let it ruin my present. So, even though this might end all too soon, I was going to enjoy what I had while I still had it.


	5. Glitch in the System

**Chase's POV**

"Alright, so Douglas wants me to run an update on your guys' chips." Calla said as she typed on the cyberdesk, not looking up as she did. "AJ, you mind grabbing Bree for me?"

"Only if I can help with the update." The younger boy countered. Up until the moment Calla got that text, he'd been helping us build her time machine. Though she still had no way to fuel the device, she wanted to have it ready for when she figured out the key to the fuel. So far, it was hardly anything impressive – a torn seat of a car she'd pulled out of the dump and a few other gadgets to try to prepare it for travel at light speeds – but Calla always had a way of turning the seemingly ordinary into something incredible.

"Fine." Calla waved her hand, eyes focused on the holo-screen in front of her.

"Hey." I sauntered over to her, leaning against the cyberdesk. She glanced at me through the translucent screen before returning her focus to the lines of data.

"Hey." She replied distractedly, biting her lip in concentration.

"I wanted to talk to you about something." I mentioned, hoping to get her full attention. She hummed in response, still busy coping down the lines of code. "So, you want to tell me why there's a whiteboard in the storage closet with pictures of Perry, AJ, and Douglas on it? Because it sorta looks like you're stalking them, and that would be really weird considering one of them is my birth father."

That got her attention. She looked up with a sheepish, guilty smile. "Sorry. You weren't supposed to see those."

"Wait, so you ARE stalking them?" I questioned incredulously.

"No! Well…Perry, briefly, but it's…" She shook her head. "Look, I should tell you-"

"Alright, let's get this over with." Bree grumbled, walking into mission command. "Jaden's flight gets in in a couple of hours and I told him I'd help him unpack his stuff."

Right, today Jaden officially moved to Centium City. "You were saying?" I asked, looking back at Calla. She hesitated, glancing at the others.

"Later?" She requested. I frowned, nodding. "Alright, good. Bree, Chase, over here. I need to remove your chips."

"You're not going to update them while they're in their capsules?" AJ questioned, surprised. Calla shook her head, motioning for Bree to sit down in front of her.

"This is quicker, and that way if some sort of virus is downloaded," she paused, using the chip extractor to remove Bree's chip. Bree winced as the chip was extracted, her hand slipping to the back of her neck as Calla pulled the extractor away, "we can deal with it before it affects their bionics. Bree, just chill upstairs for an hour or two. Your chip will be done by time Jay gets here."

"Cool. I'm going to see if Dani wants to watch Teen Fiancé with me." She skipped off, obviously in a good mood what with Jaden coming.

"She does know that the only person who'll watch that with her is your brother, right?" I joked, smiling at my wife. Calla laughed lightly as I took a seat in front of her.

"Apparently not." She agreed, pressing the extractor into the back of my neck. The chip was swiftly pulled out of my neck with a sharp pain, all of it over in a second. She pulled the device back and placed it on the cyberdesk, my chip between her fingers. "Alright, AJ, come here."

She stood up and patted the chair she had been sitting in. He took her place and watched as she placed the two chips into their special cases. She glanced at him briefly before connecting the cases to the cyberdesk with the proper wires. "Alright, this is pretty simple. All you have to do is wait until the green light goes off, then press this button." She pointed at the yellow button next to the green light. "And whatever you do, do not take down the firewall. Understood?"

"Why would I take down the firewall? That could let a virus in." AJ frowned. Calla sighed.

"You'd think people would know that." She muttered to herself before addressing him. "Look, it's happened before, so I just have to give you the warning. Just let it download without touching anything, and we can avoid another Teddy incident."

"Who's Teddy?" AJ inquired. I patted his shoulder.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." I told him before grabbing Calla's hand and leading her to the hyperlift. "So, why were you stalking Perry?"

**Xxx**

"You've got to be kidding me." I sighed, rubbing my hands over my eyes. A mole. Great, just what we needed. "And you thought it was Douglas, Perry, or AJ?"

"I…I don't know." Calla admitted, sitting down on the bed next to me. "Maybe Mort was lying. I did a bit more surveillance – the only motive Perry would have to betray us would be money, but there's no unusual activity on her bank accounts, AJ adores us and really, no villain would go to a ten-year-old to spy on us, and the only connection Douglas has with Lexi and Tank is Krane and he's too afraid of him to work with those two. None of them have reason to turn on us."

"What about the others?" I pressed. "Kaz, Dani, Skylar, and Oliver?"

"Mort's tried to kill them a few times, if memory serves right, Dani and Oliver in particular. None of them have a connection with Lexi or Tank except us, and none of them have the motive. And honestly, they're our team. I trust them enough to give them the benefit of the doubt that they're not evil backstabbers, just in the same way you trust Bree to not even bring her name up in this conversation." Calla pointed out. "They wouldn't betray us."

"Huh." I chuckled softly. She looked at me quizzically. "You always used to be the suspicious one. I mean, you and Leo distrusted Marcus from the start, and look how that turned out. How come you're not like that now?"

"Well you see, Chase, I have this other superpower. It's called intuition." She told me, a small smirk on her face, despite the fact that she was completely serious. "Marcus gave me some bad vibes, and I have to admit, I always thought Sebastian was a little sketchy, the way he was trying too hard to flirt with Bree and all. I've always trusted my gut on these things, and my gut is telling me that we can trust our team."

"I hope you're right." I sighed. Calla truly wanted to believe that they were all trustworthy, but honestly, we've been stabbed in the back by too many people we've trusted. "Who else knows?"

"You, me, and Dani." Calla admitted. "I think it's best to keep it to ourselves rather than freak the others out."

"That's smart." I stood up. "Look, as much as I want to believe you're right, you know I'm going to have to double-check everyone's alibis, right?"

"I figured you would." She agreed. She stood up and kissed me on the cheek. "And I think it's good that you are. I still don't believe that there is a mole, but maybe I'm wrong. They could have covered their tracks better than I thought, and it's better to be safe than sorry, especially in this case."

"I'm glad you agree." I nodded thoughtfully. "So, what exactly did Mort say? I want to know every detail."

**Xxx**

An hour later, after I'd made myself a list of things to check out about my teammates (there wasn't much that Calla herself hadn't looked into, but there were a few more that I wanted to give more attention), I found myself back down in mission command, alongside Calla and my sister.

"AJ, are those updates done yet?" Calla questioned. AJ nodded eagerly, pulling the chips out of their cases swiftly. He presented them to Calla, grinning.

"So, can I help you work on the time travel formula now?" He asked, bouncing up and down in his seat. He'd be working to impress her for weeks, in hopes that she'd let him onto that project of hers.

"Yeah, not a chance, kiddo." She denied. "But thanks for this."

She turned to us. "Alright, who's first?"

"Me!" Bree sped past me, taking a seat before anyone could even move. "Jaden's flight got in early."

"Geez. He's not going anywhere, you know." Calla shook her head. "I'm pretty sure that's the whole point of him moving here."

She shook her head and grabbed the chip extractor. Slipping the chip into the correct position and flipping the switch, she pressed the device against Bree's neck. The lights on the side of it lit up one by one, just as Bree winced. My sister pulled away with a grimace the moment the process was over, then got to her feet.

"Bree, if you could wait a moment, I'd like-" But Bree was gone before Calla could even finish her sentence, bolting from mission command in a blur, "-to test the new upgrade."

"Why does it need testing?" AJ questioned, frowning.

"Because it's better to be safe than story. Since the update was sent over multiple servers, it's more prone to viruses and complications." Calla sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Alright, it's fine. Just test mine out." I reasoned. "If one of them is fine, the other is too. We can make sure mine is virus free before dragging her back needlessly."

"Fine, sure." Calla sighed, although obviously a little peeved with Bree. Chuckling, I sat down in front of her and let her use the device to return my chip to its proper place in the back of my neck. I winced at it was shot into the back of my neck, reaching up to rub the spot. "Alright, so according to Douglas, your update was supposed to upgrade your app center, while Bree's was supposed to upgrade her speed."

"Why don't we go upstairs then? We can test my magnetism app out on the veranda where it won't affect the equipment down here." I suggested.

"Sure, sounds good." Calla shrugged, getting up and following me to the hyperlift, AJ trailing right behind us. We headed up to the main floor, passing Kaz and Dani as we headed to the veranda. I doubted they even noticed us – the two of them were too caught up in some new superhero movie to pay us any attention.

"Alright, this should be good." I decided, stopping in the middle of the veranda. Calla nodded and glanced at AJ.

"Alright, Chase, you use your magnetism app to…bring my telescope towards you." She pointed at the telescope that was sitting at the far end of the veranda. "AJ, use your phone to time him and we'll compare your time to the ones we got before the upgrade."

"Got it." I agreed, raising my hand. Attempting to tap into my magnetism app, I focused on the telescope, but to my surprise, nothing happened. Frowning, I focused even harder on the telescope, but for some reason, it was like my magnetism app was just out of reach.

"Any time, Chase." AJ urged. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I dropped my hand.

"Something's not right. I can't access it." I mentioned. "Hold on a sec, I'm going to try some of my other apps."

My telekinesis app? Practically non-existent. My override app? Couldn't get past the interface. Hell, I couldn't even get my fingerprint recognition app up and running. "Try your onboard hard drive." Calla suggested. "Maybe there's something there blocking them."

"Maybe." I agreed absently, accessing the computer inside my head, only to discover something very odd. There wasn't something blocking my access to the apps, but rather, the apps themselves seemed to be all jumbled, lines of code and data from one flowing into the other. It didn't appear to be a virus – though, admittedly, it could have been a trojan – but rather like something went wrong in the upgrade itself. Frowning deeply, I tried to manually sort out the lines of code, but somehow, that seemed to mix them up even more, sending them spinning back into each other.

Before I could try another method of fixing the apps, they all began to activate, spinning across my field of vision for a long moment before a few words appeared in my mind:  _Error! Cognitive Shutdown Imminent! Commando App Activated!_

I had enough time to briefly wonder why a shutdown would activate my Commando App before everything went dark.

**Oliver's POV**

"So, you're leaving?" I asked, despaired. I started to pace around Skylar's bedroom. "Just like that?"

"Things have changed on Caldera. The rebellion has calmed down and they're willing to negotiate a peace treaty, but they need a neutral representative to mediate the negotiations." Skylar explained.

"No, that I get. I just don't understand why it has to be you." I stressed, stopping to look at her. "They could choose any representative. Hell, why can't Hapax do it?"

"Hapax is a mutant from Earth, not a native Calderan. As for why it has to be me, I'm supposed to be a symbol of peace and justice to my people." Skylar shrugged. "I think they just want a local celebrity to mediate."

"And you said yes." It wasn't a question.

"No." To my surprise, Skylar shook her head. "I told Hapax I needed to think about it."

"What are you going to do?" I questioned.

"I don't know." She admitted, her tone solemn. "I mean, going back and making sure that what happens in best for Caldera…that's the right thing to do."

"The team still needs you." I insisted. "And what about us? We're just starting out and you want to bail?"

"No!" She snapped, standing up. "I don't want to leave, Oliver, but what other choice do I have?"

"You can choose to stay." I pointed out. She gave me a bittersweet smile. "Do what you want, Skylar."

"We're heroes, Oliver. It's not about what I want, or about what you want. It's about doing what's right." She reasoned. She sighed. "I think I should go."

"I-" Before I could say anything else, a loud crash came from the main floor. Startled, Skylar and I both jumped to our feet. We quickly raced down the stairs, two at a time, only to come across a bewildering sight; Chase, standing barely an inch away from Kaz, breathing down his neck menacingly, while my best friend stared at him, his expression a mix of confusion and fear. Meanwhile, AJ was staring at the scene with wide, terrified eyes, Dani was sitting on the ground behind an overturned couch, confused, and Calla was watching the whole thing, with a sheepish, concerned frown on her face.

"You want to say that to me again, punk?" Chase demanded, his voice oddly several octaves lower than normal.

"Yeah, what's wrong with you?" Kaz questioned, backing up several feet, shocked and confused. "I mean, you have your weird moments, but this is just plain freaky."

"You call me freaky one more time and I'll rip out your liver and use it as a hockey puck!" Chase roared. Kaz gulped nervously, backing up again.

"Is it a shapeshifter?" Skylar demanded, looking for any explanation.

"Uh, no," Calla shook her head. She didn't look as scared as the others, though she did look a little nervous. "Spike's just…he has a thing about wanting to rip out people's organs?"

"Uh, why?" "Spike?" "But why does he want to rip out mine?" Skylar, AJ, and Kaz all demanded.

"Uh, well, Spike is Chase's evil alter ego that results from a strange and debatably unnecessary app Davenport installed. As for the why…" Calla frowned, then stepped forward, closer to 'Spike'. "Uh, why do you want to rip out Kaz's liver?"

"Kaz? That's a stupid name." Spike snorted, annoyed. Calla frowned deeper for a brief moment, then put a fake smile on her face.

"Spiky," She smiled flirtatiously at him, "aside from me, do you know anyone here?"

"Why would Spike care about these losers?" Chase scoffed.

"Losers?" Kaz repeated, offended. Spike turned and growled at Kaz. "You know what, losers is fine. I like it, actually."

"Spike's hungry." Spike declared, raising his head. He turned and looked at Calla. "Wanna bring me some food, kitten?"

Calla raised an eyebrow. "The fridge is right there. Get it yourself." She retorted. Surprisingly, instead of threatening to rip out her spleen or something, Spike seemed to like it when Calla spoke back to him.

"Spike likes it when kitten gets feisty." He smirked before heading into the kitchen. We all winced as he ripped the door off the fridge, discarding it before literally tearing through the fridge.

"Okay, why doesn't he remember us?" Dani questioned. Kaz grinned.

"And why does he keep calling you 'kitten'?" He added.

"Spike doesn't always remember everything Chase does. I remember a few years ago, Chase and I had broken up and when Spike came out, he had no idea, so it's possible that Spike's not caught up on everything that's going on." Calla considered it. "As for the kitten thing, it's just a weird nickname. Do NOT call me that."

"Well, how do we get Spike to go away?" I asked the obvious question. Calla bit her lip, looking past us to watch as Spike tossed the dish of grapes over his shoulder, having evidently decided that he wasn't in the mood for grapes.

"Uh, usually, we'd wait for whatever set him off to go away, or for him to calm down, but it doesn't make sense why he turned in the first place." She replied. "Commando Apps are activated by adrenaline spikes, like fear or embarrassment, but this…this was random."

"Weren't you doing updates earlier? Could that have screwed with his system?" Dani inquired, ducking as a block of cheese went flying over her head. "Watch it!"

"You watch it, sister!" Spike snapped. Dani shrank back, looking like she was trying to make herself small.

"Maybe…" Calla suddenly spun around and turned on AJ. "AJ, what did you do?"

"Nothing!" He defended himself. She gave him a look. "I took the chips out after the green light went off, exactly like you said."

"Did you press the yellow button first?" She pressed. He hesitated, giving her her answer. "Damn it, AJ! I told you specifically…c'mon!"

"Calla?" I questioned. She sighed irritably.

"Have you ever pulled a memory stick out before manually ejecting it from the computer? You risk corrupting all the data on it, which is evidently what AJ did to Chase's chip. Probably Bree's too." She muttered.

"Well, how do we fix this?" Skylar questioned before Calla could start lecturing AJ.

"I…I could reformat the chip, but I need the Commando App to shut down first." She decided, shaking her head helplessly.

"And how do we do that?" Kaz questioned. "You know, before he destroys the kitchen?"

Looking over our shoulders, we saw that Spike had moved onto the cupboards, tearing off the doors as he searched for something decent to eat.

"What if we overload his chip? Like how a computer restarts after it gets overwhelmed?" I suggested. Calla nodded.

"Maybe. If we can get him to use more than one bionic ability…that could work." The girl genius nodded enthusiastically.

"Alright. I've got a plan." Skylar nodded. "Kaz, Dani, you guys go left. Oliver and I will go right. Calla, since you're the only one who Spike doesn't want to rip apart, you distract him."

"Yeah, kitten." Kaz teased. That got Spike's attention.

"Hey, she's Daddy's kitten, not yours!" He roared, turning his attention on Kaz. He stalked away from the cupboards towards Kaz. "She is not yours."

"He knows that." Calla stepped forward, smiling brightly, but Spike was not interested. He swept her back with one arm, not gently but surprisingly not roughly either, and approached Kaz.

"Stay out of this, toots." He told her. Calla stopped, affronted. He ignored her, glaring back at Kaz. "Pretty boy here needs to learn to stay away from what's not his."

Without another word, Spike lunged forward, grabbing Kaz by the collar of his shirt and shoving him against the nearest wall hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs. "Kaz!" Dani reacted instantly, raising her hand and shooting a bolt of electricity into Spike's chest. Spike was thrown to the ground, but apparently, Spike had more endurance than Chase, because a moment later he was back on his feet, glaring furiously at Dani and Kaz.

"You're dead." He snarled, charging at them. Every one of us leapt out of the way, though Spike managed to catch a hold of Dani's arm first. He yanked on it hard, causing her to cry out in pain as he forcefully tugged her towards him. "No one attacks Spike and gets away with it!"

"Hey!" Dani shouted, trying to pull away. When she couldn't, both Kaz and I blasted him with our individual abilities. Neither of us were trying to injure Spike – he was still Chase, after all – but we wanted to hurt him enough to either overwhelm his system or at the very least, release my sister.

Spike raised his arms to defend himself, giving Dani the distraction she needed to pull away. Spike stumbled back a few steps, Chase's force field glimmering as it disappeared.

"I thought Chase couldn't use multiple abilities at once." Skylar called. Calla shook her head.

"He can, but I didn't think Spike knew how to access them. It's super dangerous, the last time…" She stopped, her face setting as something clicked in her mind. "The last time, he passed out. Make him do it again! Hit him from all sides!"

Dani was the first to comply, sending electrical shocks Spike's way. I followed suit, shooting a blast of icy air towards him, while Kaz and Skylar used their fire and energy blasts to take him. Spike used his forcefield to block Kaz and Skylar's blasts and turned his attention of Dani and I.

"Hey, Spiky!" Calla called, distracting him as we increased our attacks. Spike shouted in frustration, then suddenly dropped to his knees. We all stopped our attacks, thinking we maybe hurt him too badly, but then he leapt back to his feet, snarling.

"How dare you-" Before he could even finish his sentence, he dropped to the ground again. The only difference was this time, the lights in the Penthouse went out at the same time he hit the ground. AJ was standing behind him, holding a device from mission command.

"EMP." He explained with a shrug. "Thought it would be easier than wearing him out."

"Maybe not a bad idea." I agreed, looking down at Chase's body. "He's alright, right?"

"Oh yeah." Calla nodded, bending down. She checked his pulse, nodded to herself, then ran her hand through his hair. "Almost two years since I last saw Spike. Have to admit, kinda missed him."

"You did?" Kaz questioned, incredulous.

"Kinda." Calla shrugged. Suddenly, there was a loud thudding at the door, almost like someone knocking, but perhaps with their foot. Exchanging looks, Skylar walked over to the door and pulled it open. Jaden walked in, carrying Bree over his shoulder. Bree's legs were a blur of movement, kicking and swinging so fast that we couldn't get a good view of them.

"We got a problem." Bree announced, sounding very annoyed. Jaden frowned, looking around.

"Apparently, we aren't the only ones." He commented, a little confused.


	6. Mother May I?

**Kaz's POV**

"Man, I really hate Mort and his new pals." I complained, dropping my mission bag onto the ground by the couch. Bree nodded in agreement.

"Me too. I mean this just crossed the line." She agreed, arms crossed.

"Hey, how'd it go?" Jaden questioned, walking out the from the kitchen. We all looked at him, briefly confused why he was here instead of his own apartment. "Oh, Bree texted me about the early mission. I figured you'd want breakfast." He gestured at the kitchen counter, where seven steaming plates of pancakes, bacon and eggs awaited us.

"Best brother ever." Calla grinned, pecking him on the cheek before grabbing a plate. Jaden chuckled, amused. "And yeah, I guess it went well."

"I guess?" Jaden furrowed his brow, confused.

"Benjamin and Jennifer VanOver." Oliver explained, grabbing a couple of plates and handing one to Skylar. "AKA, Baby Tecton and his mother. We included Benjamin on the list after he started showing signs of his father's powers. Lexi must have gotten their location off of it before attacking them."

"Baby Tecton? How old is this kid?" Jaden demanded, alarmed. Skylar sighed, sitting down at the table next to Oliver.

"Two and a half, almost three." She sighed. "I mean, they're okay. Lexi bolted when she saw us, without hurting them, and we managed to get them moved to a safer location, but still. Who attacks a kid that young?"

"Well, actually, the list didn't have ages or anything on it. Just information on their home locations, and speaking of which, I thought that Jennifer left after Tecton died." Dani commented, confused as she sat down. "I thought that they were moving to Los Angeles, not staying in Cincinnati."

"They moved back after Jennifer's mom passed away." I explained. "Sorry, I thought I told you."

"Well, you didn't." She snapped, annoyed. I looked at her, surprised. Why did it matter now? They were gone, moved elsewhere for their own protection. "Sorry, I'm just…frustrated."

"We all are." Chase agreed, sitting down on the couch next to Calla. He wrung his hands together. "Lexi, Mort, and Tank and whoever they're working for are getting out on control. I mean, we've connected Lexi to the attack on Mr. Davenport's submarine, several of the attacks at landmarks around the city, and obviously, the attack here."

"They're not working on their own." Oliver commented. "Mort's a henchman…actually, last I checked, he was a lackey, not even a henchman. He's not smart enough to do this on his own."

"Neither are Lexi or Tank. Tank doesn't even speak and while Lexi can be manipulative, she wouldn't be the kind to put all this together." Bree agreed. She looked at Calla, Jaden, and Chase. "And even if you know who is helping them, he doesn't have the resources to do this on his own."

"Wait, you know who?" Dani's voice dropped into a hushed whisper, her eyes lit up in awe. "Hogwarts is real?"

"You know, I can't tell if she's joking or not." Jaden commented, regarding Dani warily. She smirked and stuck her tongue out at him teasingly before grabbing my hand and pulling me into the blue chair with her.

"She means Sebastian. He was arrested at the same time as Lexi and Tank." Chase explained. "He tried to overtake the Academy after he found out we stopped his father from taking over the world."

"You know, maybe Krane's back." Calla commented, looking up in concern.

"But he's dead." Bree pointed out before any one of us could ask who they were talking about. "He blew up in space, remember?"

"It wouldn't exactly be the first time we wrong about him being dead though, now would it?" Calla countered, taking a bite of her pancakes.

"Give me." Dani took my plate and fork from me, a disgusted look on her face as she used my utensil to slide the bacon from her plate onto mine.

"What makes you so sure it's a bionic villain anyway?" Oliver questioned.

"Well, the only one other enemies we have that would be able to pull this off would be Giselle, but she's  _definitely_ dead." Chase replied.

"What about one of ours? A supervillain?" I offered. The others exchanged looks.

"Uh, no offense guys, but from all the supervillains we've met, none of them have had what it takes to pull something like this off. Bionic villains are just…eviler. That's a word right?" Bree looked at her brother for validation.

"You're right about most of them; most villains are just your garden variety criminal with powers, but we've had some pretty dark ones." Skylar insisted. "The Annihilator, Wallace and Clyde…Bridget."

I felt Dani stiffen besides me. I took her hand, offering her a cheeky smile. "C'mon, even she's not cruel enough to attack a toddler."

"You don't know my mother that well then." Oliver grumbled. When Dani shifted uncomfortably, I stepped in.

"I think the point is, we don't know who they're working with." I pointed out. "It could be anyone of those, or someone completely new. We don't know."

"Well, we might soon." Calla commented offhandedly. We all looked at her and she smirked deviously. "I hit Lexi with a tracker."

"You're tracking her?" Dani asked, surprised. Calla shook her head.

"Well, no, not anymore. The tracker went offline twenty minutes, near an abandoned subway tunnel. BUT," She emphasized the word, "I do have MISS monitoring the area. The moment whoever they're working for steps into view, we'll have satellite of their identity."

"Why not just storm the place?" I questioned.

"It's better to know what we're facing rather than going in blind." Chase advised. Calla nodded in agreement.

"Besides, it's not like this'll take long – I'm sure we'll know who we're up against by the end of the day." She added. Dani sighed irritably and got to her feet. "Impatient, much?"

"This waiting is killing me. I need a tofu pop." She declared, heading over to the fridge. She opened it and let out a disappointed sound. "We're out of tofu pops."

"Sorry, my bad. I put it on the grocery list." I apologized. She shook her head.

"Anyone else need something? I'm going to the store." She decided, grabbing her purse. When no one else spoke up, she walked out, the door swinging closed behind her. I sighed and looked at Skylar.

"You had to bring up Bridget?" I questioned in resignation. She knew that was a sensitive topic for Dee, whether or not my girlfriend wanted to admit it. Oliver sighed.

"I'll go talk to her." He offered. He glanced at Calla. "Text me when you know who's bossing Mort and the evil bionics around."

"Will do." Calla agreed, finishing her breakfast. As Oliver left, she licked her lips, looked down at her empty plate, then over at Oliver's. "Dibs on his bacon."

**Dani's POV**

"You took your time getting here." Mom observed as I walked into the subway tunnel. I bent down, hands on my knees as I recovered my breath.

"Sorry, I ran here, but I had to take the long way through the tunnels." I gestured at the opposite side of the subway tunnel. "Calla got a tracker on Lexi and now she's got our AI watching the entrance like a hawk."

"Thank you for the warning, dear." Mom nodded thoughtfully. I stared at her incredulously.

"Thank you? That's it?" I demanded. She looked at me sharply.

"Was there something else?" She questioned. I nodded.

"Yeah! You attacked a two-year-old, Mom! What the hell?" I demanded, pissed. She gave me a look.

"I was unaware of the child's age. Even I wouldn't kill a child in cold blood, especially not when he's still too young to have chosen a side. Who knows, perhaps he'll be an asset to us one day." She wondered aloud. When she saw the look on my face, she rolled her eyes. "The moment Lexi realized how young he was, she called me for instructions. I told her to leave the boy and get out of there before your team arrived."

"Still." I didn't like that she'd gone after Baby Tecton. "That crosses the line."

"It was an honest mistake, dear. It would not have happened if the information you gave me was updated with the child's age." She retorted, her tone accusing. "In fact, much of the information you gave me was incomplete. Inaccurate."

"A lot of the superheroes move around a lot to keep themselves safe, and besides, Kaz is in charge of keeping the list up to date. It's not my fault if he hasn't been doing his job." I shrugged in annoyance. "You wanted the information, I gave you what we had."

"And I don't doubt that." Mom assured me. "As for those that do, you're going to have the chance to prove yourself to them."

"When?" I questioned, frustrated. She'd said that already, sure, but that was ages ago. I was getting impatient with being left on the outside of things, taking all these risks without any kind of reward.

"Today." I raised an eyebrow, surprise.

"How?"

Mom gave me a look. "You'll know the moment when it comes." She assured me. Her phone buzzed then and she looked it. "You should go. Before your team notices you're missing."

I hesitated. "What are you going to do?"

Mom smiled, the same smile she used to give me when she knew something I didn't. The same smile that had scared me for years. "Send a message."

I frowned, confused, but when I pressed her for more information, she refused to elaborate. I sighed in annoyance. "Alright." I agreed reluctantly, taking a few steps back. "I guess I will see you soon then."

I turned on my heel and started down the dark, damp tunnel. Eventually, it would lead to the tunnels that my team and I used to get around the city – it was faster and generally safer late at night – but for now, I was forced to trudge through the subway.

I thought back to what Mom had said about having the chance to prove myself. She had hinted at that before, though it had been implied that I would have to choose between her and my team. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. This was never supposed to go this far, and after what happened with Baby Tecton this morning-

I stopped in my tracks, suddenly hearing the sound of gravel moving behind me. I sighed, shaking my head. "Was there something else, Mom?" I questioned as I turned around. But my voice caught in my throat when I saw that it wasn't Mom standing behind me. Ollie stood a few feet away, staring at me, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. "Shit."

**Kaz's POV**

"How are you so good at this?" Skylar questioned, sighing as Bree swept up all the Oreos we were using as poker chips in her arms. The speedster smirked, taking the deck and shuffling it together.

"Calla brought a poker set into the lab about a month after we met. And between her being overcompetitive and Chase cheating, I had to learn a few tricks to finally beat them." She explained, dealing out hands. Chase, the only one of us not playing, looked up from his book, offended.

"I do not cheat." He retorted.

"Hate to break it to you babe, but using a bionic ability to calculate the odds of specific cards being in the river or flop." Calla told him teasingly, glancing at her cards. She paused, something catching her eye. "You know, Kaz, you'd probably be doing a lot better if you  _stopped eating your chips_."

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have suggested we use cookies as chips instead of real ones." I retorted, purposefully taking a bite out of another cookie. She rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she tossed a cookie into the pot.

"I think I left my set of chips back at the Academ-"

" _Sorry to interrupt, Miss Calla,"_  MISS cut her off mid-sentence.  _"But you asked to be informed as soon as movement was captured at the possible location for Lexi's base of operations."_

We all exchanged looks. "Kaz, call Oliver and Dani, tell them to get back here. MISS, if you could show the images on the main screen?" Chase requested, standing up.

I pulled out my phone as the TV screen turned on, showing an image of the entrance to the subway tunnel. There was a person on screen, exiting the tunnel, but they were too far away to get a good view. "Can you get a closer look, MISS?" Calla asked hopefully.

MISS complied, focusing in on the image, the person finally coming into focus. I was about halfway through dialing Dani's number when I realized that I knew the woman on the screen.

"Uh…Kaz?" Skylar looked at me, eyes widening as she recognized her too. Calla, Bree, Chase, and Jaden all looked at us, confused.

"You guys know her? Is she a supervillain?" Jaden questioned, looking at us. I dropped my hand, my phone still clutching in my hand.

"Yeah, we do. That's Mr. Terror." Skylar answered, a concerned frown on her face. "She's Oliver and Dani's mother."

**Oliver's POV**

"What the hell, Dani?!" I shouted, completely stunned. I'd followed her to make sure she was okay – I'd thought Mom was a sensitive topic for her, but clearly I was wrong about that.

My sister gulped nervously, glancing over her shoulder as if to check that she hadn't been followed. "H-How much of that did you hear?" She asked, her voice shaking nervously.

"I heard enough." I retorted. "You're talking to…you're working with Mom, are you kidding me?"

She winced at the loudness in my voice. "It's not that simple, Ollie."

"Then explain what's going on!" I demanded. "Seriously, Dani, what in the actual hell are you thinking?"

"I…I don't think that's actually a phrase…" She laughed nervously. I glared at her. "Look, Ollie, it's…it's complicated."

"Then make it simple. Explain." Maybe there was a logical explanation for all of this, because right now, I couldn't figure it out. Dani and Mom, they were like fire and ice. They'd never gotten along, not even back when we just thought Mom was being overprotective. And now they were supposedly working together? I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

"Ollie…"

"The truth, Dani." I insisted, angry. She nodded, a guilty look crossing over her face.

"Mom contacted me a few days ago, said she wanted to meet in person." She began. "I…thought I could maybe talk her into turning herself in or something."

"That's not what it sounded like to me." I commented. She waved her hand.

"You must have missed part of the conversation. As for the last part, I didn't expect things to go that way either." Dani admitted. "I only agreed with her in there because I wasn't sure what she'd do if I didn't."

I guess that sorta made sense, and if I did miss part of that conversation, it could explain a bit about the things I did hear. "Why didn't you tell me that she got into contact with you?"

"I wasn't sure what you'd say, and you wouldn't have let me come in here like I did." She admitted. I nodded.

"Damn straight I wouldn't have. Dani, this wasn't just dangerous, it was stupid dangerous!" I scolded.

"I had to try." She murmured. She looked at me, eyes pleading. "Skylar, she wants to take Mom down like we would any villain, and if that means Mom dying like…like Roddiseus, then she's okay with that. But as crappy a mother as she was, she's still our mother."

I sighed, not exactly disagreeing. "Skylar understands that."

"No, she doesn't." Dani replied, not unkindly. "Skylar never had a mom, or any parents for that matter. She doesn't understand this – she can't. And while I don't blame her for that, that doesn't mean I have to agree with her either. And the others, they're on board with it too. They just see her as another villain, not like she's our mother. I had to at least try, Ollie."

God, this was SO Dani – doing something stupid because she thought it was right. Still, a small part of me wondered if she was lying to me, if there was something, more dangerous going on.

"Are you sure that's it, Dee?" I asked. She looked at me, a small frown on her face.

"What else would there be?" She asked softly, giving me a confused look. I sighed. No, as much as I loved Dani, she wasn't smart enough (or stupid enough, depending on your point of view) to hide something that big from me.

"We have to tell the others." I told her. She bit her lip, not liking the idea. "Dee, we have to. They'll understand, and maybe we can make sure Mom gets a fair trial."

"Maybe." She agreed reluctantly. I smiled, satisfied.

"C'mon." I ushered her towards the tunnels. "Let's go."

**Kaz's POV**

We were already suited up, ready to go, when the twins walked in. "Hey guys, we need to talk." Oliver started as they came in, though he paused when he saw that we were all prepped. "Was there a mission alert while we were gone?"

"No, um…" We all exchanged looks. After we realized it was Bridget, we weren't sure whether to call them or not. It might be easier, dealing with this without them, but then again, they had the right to know. "You guys might want to sit down."

"…Why?" Dani questioned, frowning.

"We got a hit on who's been working with Lexi, Mort, and Tank. We think she's their boss, actually." Calla began hesitantly, looking at Skylar and I in hopes that we'd take over.

"Uh, their boss…" I started, but Dani cut me off.

"It's Mom, isn't it?" She guessed.

"How'd you know?" Chase asked sharply. Oliver stepped forward before Dani could speak.

"She contacted us. Wants us to work with her." He explained, sending Dani a glance over his shoulder. "Obviously, we're not interested. That's why we came straight here."

"Good move." Bree agreed.

"So, we're storming the place?" Dani asked softly.

"Something like that, yeah." Chase nodded.

"You guys don't have to come, not if you don't feel up to it." Jaden added, stepping out of the hyperlift, carrying a large blaster. He gave the twins a smile. "We'd get it."

"No, we're in." Dani replied, shaking her head. She gave her brother a small smile. "Our mom, our responsibility."

"She's right." Oliver nodded.

"Glad to hear it." I grinned, putting my arms around their shoulders. "Suit up, and let's go kick Mort's ass."

Before they could respond, MISS spoke up again. "Lexi's tracker is on the move again." She announced. The image on the TV screen switched to a map of Centium City. A flashing red dot slowly moved along one of the streets. "Judging by her trajectory, it appears that they're heading to a private airstrip, just south of the city."

"The airport? Why?" Oliver questioned, frowning. He looked over at Dani, but my girlfriend shrugged, as confused as we were.

"Doesn't matter. We need to get there and stop them before they do whatever it is that they're planning." Calla decided. She looked at us. "Let's go."

**Dani's POV**

I couldn't believe it; Ollie covered for me. I lied straight to his face, something I was too good at for comfort, and not only did he believe every word, but he also took my side in things with the others. I should be pleased, but instead, there was a big ball of guilt building up in my stomach, almost making me nauseous. I hated lying to Ollie, always had, but this? I didn't even hesitate, and it didn't even bother me in the moment. Not just that, but I took advantage of the trust we'd always had in each other, and used that against him. That was wrong, that was incredibly wrong and I felt horrible for it, but I couldn't take the action back now. All I could do was hope that things turned out okay.

Not that they would. Mom had something big planned, and I suspected that she expected me to publicly change to her side, maybe even attack the others. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, the rock being what I really wanted but the hard place being the right thing to do. No matter what I chose, there would be serious consequences. It felt like my heart was tearing itself in half, trying to decide which family to go with.

I flew past a skyscraper, hurtling towards the air strip, Ollie and Kaz at my sides. Bree and Skylar were below us, our flight matching their average running speed. Calla, Chase, and Jaden weren't far behind, having grabbed a couple of the Davencycles from the garage. Maybe I should just come clean, tell them everything. Maybe they wouldn't be that mad. Hell, maybe they'd even understand why all this had to happen…Aw, who was I kidding? They'll be pissed when they find out the truth; we were a team, we were supposed to trust each other, and I pretty much threw all that out the window the moment I got my mother on the phone.

What felt like both too soon and too long at the same time, we arrived at the air strip. But when Kaz, Ollie, and I landed on the tarmac, it was too late; we watched as a small, private jet started to take off. Standing some ways away were Mort, Lexi, and Tank, watching the plane go. "Oh no." Bree said as she and Skylar skidded to a stop next to us. "We're too late."

"Where's Mr. Terror?" Chase demanded as he, Calla, and Jaden's Davencycles stopped a few feet away.

"You're too late!" Mort mocked as he, Lexi, and Tank approached us. He smirked cockily, obviously pleased that they beat us here.

"Don't be so smug; she left you behind, remember?" Skylar snapped, narrowing her eyes at the villains.

"We need to go after her." Chase decided.

"Yeah, not gonna happen." Lexi sneered before speeding forward as it to attack. Bree sped up first, though, blocking her path.

"Try it." Our speedster challenged. Tank and Mort came up behind Lexi, ready to fight. We all stepped forward, not about to let them get away, but paused when Calla spoke up.

"We've got this." She murmured as she created a pair of proton disks in her hands. "Chase, take Skylar and the twins and grab Davenport's jet. Follow Mr. Terror and stop her. We'll take care of these losers."

"You sure?" Chase asked, hesitant. His wife gave him a smirk.

"Oh yeah." She assured him before lunging forward, her proton disks flying towards Mort. Bree and Jaden also jumped into action, the former speeding forward towards Lexi, limbs flying at impossible speeds, while the latter took aim at Tank with his Concussion Blaster. Kaz spared Ollie and I a look before following suit, clearly wishing he could go with us. But Calla's suggestion was smart – my mother was far more dangerous than these guys, and Skylar, Ollie, and I were some of the bigger powerhouses on the team.

"Be careful!" I called, slowly starting to follow Chase, Skylar, and my brother away from the fight. I knew we needed to get out of there fast – Kaz and the others would stand a better chance of beating Lexi, Mort, and Tank if they didn't have to worry about giving us time to escape, but honestly, I wasn't sure if I was ready for whatever Mom was planning.

"Dani, c'mon!" I heard Skylar shouted. I lingered behind for another moment, watched Kaz send a burst of flames towards Mort, then turned on my heel and raced after the others.

"So, where is she going?" I demanded as we grabbed the Davecycles. Having never rode anything like them before, Ollie and I climbed on behind Skylar and Chase, barely managing to get our helmets on before speeding away from the air strip. "Chase?"

"I'm tracking the jet's trajectory now. We should have a location by time we get to Mr. Davenport's plane." He replied, swerving through traffic. I tightened my grip around his waist, looking over my shoulder in hopes of catching Ollie's eye. He and Skylar were a few feet behind us, careful to stay close enough that they wouldn't get left behind in traffic. Thankfully, Davenport's jet was waiting for us at a nearby airstrip, very similar to the one we just left; we were there in a matter of minutes.

"Skylar, you're my co-pilot." Chase ordered as we entered the cockpit. She nodded silently, taking a seat next to him.

"So where's our Mom going?" Ollie questioned. Chase frowned and concentrated.

"Well, according to her flight path, she's headed to…" He trailed off. "Shit."

"What?" I demanded. He cursed under his breath, flipping switches.

"She's headed for Facility X." He informed us. "We have to get there before she does."

"Facility X? Isn't that where we stored the Arcturion?" Skylar demanded, eyes going wide.

"I guess she wants more powers." That explained it. That was what Mom had wanted all along, though honestly, I should have guessed it earlier.

"But how did she find out it was there?" Skylar frowned, confused. Ollie spared me a glance.

" _Dani, tell me you didn't."_ He pleaded with me telepathically.

" _Would I really give her access to all that power? C'mon, Ollie, I'm not that stupid."_  I sent back, keeping the conversation brief. I'd been keeping our telepathic connection at a distance; I didn't want him seeing more than what I allowed, not even by accident. Now that he was already suspicious, my personal thoughts would just make things dangerous.

"We have to stop her before she gets ahold of it." Skylar fretted.

"Well, luckily, Mr. Davenport's private jet is one of the fastest in the world." Chase assured her. "They have a head start, but we might just be able to catch up with them. Oliver, Dani, sit down and buckle up; it might be a bumpy ride."

**Oliver's POV**

"So, where's the Arcturion?" Dani questioned as we entered the facility. "And where is all the security?"

"There wasn't much; no one ever comes out here." Chase explained. He had a point; the facility was an unassuming building in the middle of a massive forest near the Canadian border. No one would end up here by accident, and it was hard enough to spot from the air with all these trees. "There should be a few guards here though, protecting the secure storage area. Which is right around…"

Chase cut himself off as we turned the corner, the genius stopping in his tracks. Kneeling by a pair of unconscious guards was a tall, square-jawed guy with spiky brown hair. He looked about our age, and wore mostly black, along with a camo-green vest. He looked up as we came in, then smirked to himself.

"Chase!" He greeted, standing up. "It's been a long time."

"Sebastian." Chase gritted his teeth together. "I should have guessed you'd be working for Mr. Terror."

"Well, she makes one hell of a boss." He laughed before raising a hand. A bo staff, similar to Chase's, but glowing red instead of blue, appeared in his palm. He swung it around himself, showing it off, before falling into a fighting stance. "About time I got my rematch."

"You'll lose." Chase retorted, whipping out his own plasma bo staff. He charged at Sebastian, the bo staff held high above his head. He swung it down on Sebastian, but the bionic villain raised his in protection, blocking the attack. He then spun around, as if to gain momentum for his bo staff, but at the last moment, he raised his other hand, and a blast of electricity burst from it. The blast hit Chase directly in the chest, throwing him back into the wall behind him.

Chase slid the ground with a groan just as Skylar tried her luck, lunging at Sebastian, only to cartwheel away at the last moment. She shot a blast of energy at him, but unfortunately, he deflected it with his bo staff.

"Secure the Arcturion." Chase ordered, pushing himself to his feet. Dani didn't even hesitate, already racing towards the secure storage room. I followed after her, staying close as Skylar and Chase took on Sebastian. Surprisingly, he didn't seem too interested in stopping us from entering the storage, his focus only on defeating Chase and Skylar.

We burst into the secure storage room – a small, white room with shelves lining the wall – only to find that Mom had beat us here. My mother stood in the middle of the room, right next to a podium that held the Arcturion space rock.

"Mom." Dani called, letting her know we were here. My mother looked up, drawing her hand back, away from the Arcturion.

"Danica, Oliver. Good, I've been waiting for you." She greeted, smiling in satisfaction.

"You can't get more powers from it." I told her, nodding at the Arcturion. "Not without killing yourself."

"You don't have to worry about that, dear. I've found someone to help with that." She assured me. "It can give us all powers, more than you already have. We'd be the most powerful family on the planet."

"We don't want any more powers." I snapped. "And we're no family; you destroyed that a year and a half ago."

"Perhaps I didn't handle things with you two the way I should, but that's all in the past." She assured me. "We can move past that, go back to my original plan."

"To take over the world?" I challenged. "No thanks."

"To make it safer. For you." She assured me. "To protect the people you care about."

"Please. The moment they got in the way, you'd get rid of them so you could 'protect' us." I argued. "This isn't protection, this is you wanting control, whether you see it or not."

"Oh, Oliver, I was hoping you would see our side." She sounded so disappointed, as if she really thought I would join her. But neither Dani or I were stupid enough to fall for whatever she said. I stiffened as she picked the Arcturion up, turning the pyramid over in her hands.

"Stop. Mom, stop." I told her, stepping forward. I looked at her pleadingly. "We can't join you, but we don't want to fight you either. So, put down the Arcturion and let me take you to UPSEI, alright?"

"I can't do that, honey." She told me, giving me a bittersweet smile. "I have to do this. You'll understand one day."

"No, I won't. Now put down the Arcturion, or we'll have to make you put it down." I raised my hand, creating a ball of ice in the palm to show her I was serious. She gave me a condescending look, the same she used to give us when she was amused by our inability to do something. "Fine. I'm sorry, Mom, but you gave us no choice."

I crushed the ice ball and prepared to send a blast of ice her way (just powerful enough to incapacitate her), but before I could, a bolt of lightning struck the ground by my feet. I jumped back in surprise, then looked up, wide-eyed, at my sister. She stepped towards Mom, but her hands were aimed at me, a ball of electrical energy held tightly in one. "Dani?"

"I can't let you do that, Ollie." She told me, giving me an apologetic look. I stared at her, not understanding.

"Dani, what are you doing?" I whispered, horrified. She gave me a saddened look.

"I'm sorry, Ollie, but I have to do what I think is right." She answered, taking a shaky breath. I went to take a step towards her, but she zapped the ground again, stopping me dead in my tracks. "Don't…please don't."

"Or what, you'll attack me? Your own brother?" I demanded. She nodded stiffly, eyes watering a little.

"If I have to." She breathed, guilt crossing her face. I shook my head at her in disbelief.

"I don't know who are anymore." I murmured, absolutely thunderstruck. She flinched at my words, but didn't respond to them. Suddenly, Sebastian appeared in the room, geo-leaping in from the other. He was bleeding from a cut on his lip.

"If we're going to bail, we need to do it now." He told my mother. She nodded, smiled, then took the Arcturion in her hands. She placed her hand on Sebastian's shoulder, then looked at my sister expectantly.

"Are you coming, dear?" She inquired.

"Dani, don't!" I shouted. My sister sent me one last, devastatingly apologetic look, then grabbed Sebastian's arm. I lunged forward to pull her away, but they were gone in an instant.

I stared at the spot where they had been standing, trying to wrap my mind around what had just happened. I couldn't believe that Dani had just done that, had just left us, left our team, just like that?

I heard footsteps come up behind me. "Oliver!" Skylar called as she and Chase ran into the room. "Where's Mr. Terror and the Arcturion?" When I didn't answer, she grabbed my hand. "Oliver, where's Dani?"

**Kaz's POV**

"She's been brainwashed!" I declared, pacing around the penthouse. After Lexi, Mort, and Tank had geo-leap away in the middle of our battle, Calla, Jaden, Bree, and I had come back to the penthouse. Minutes later, the rest of our teams, sans Dani, arrived with the news. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Yes, brainwashing must be the only logical explanation." Calla commented sarcastically. "Dude, no."

"Calla." Chase warned her, giving her a look. I looked around at the others, but no one was saying.

"C'mon, it fits, and it wouldn't be the first time we'd seen it." I insisted. I looked at Bree, hoping she'd back me up on this. "What was that thing you were telling me about? The Titan App?"

"Triton App." Bree corrected, even as she shook her head. "But it wasn't that. The only device capable of using it on humans was destroyed."

"She wasn't brainwashed." I looked over at Oliver when he spoke up, the first time since they'd come back. He shook his head, closing his eyes. "I would know if there was something wrong with her mind, and she was acting…well, she wasn't acting brainwashed."

"Then Mr. Terror did something to her. Made her evil, like…like the Annihilator made you evil." I spun around, looking at Skylar.

"Maybe…" She sighed, looking and sounding doubtful.

"Kaz, buddy, I know you don't want to admit it, but Dani joined her mother of her own free will." Chase told me, his tone sympathetic.

"No, she didn't. She couldn't have." I refused to believe it. I looked around at the others, but they all had the same, betrayed, defeated looks on their faces. "Guys, it's Dani we're talking about. Miss Animal-Loving, Bridget-Hating, Soccer-Playing Dani! She'd never work for her mother."

"Except, that's exactly what's been happening." Calla sighed, leaning her head on her fist as she looked up at me. "Mort told me there was a mole, but…I didn't believe him. Turns out, he was telling the truth."

"I don't believe this. I don't." I argued with them. If they didn't want to believe in Dani, fine, but I would. "There's something else going on here. She's not evil."

**Dani's POV**

"…And that's when I decided to move our base of operations down here…" I barely listened as Mom droned on and on about her new base of the operations. Under different circumstances, I would be excited to be down here – her new base was a stylish, modern-designed series of rooms and tunnels underground, complete with bright lights and a cool waterfall in the lounge area – but right now, I could care less.

I hadn't wanted things to end like that, especially not between Ollie and I. God, he must hate me now. I suppose I deserved that, but it still wasn't a good feeling. I hadn't wanted to hurt him, or the team, but my back had been against the wall, and I didn't know what else to do except follow the plan.

"Danica, are you listening to me?" My mother stopped, looking at me.

"Sorry." I shook my head to clear it. "Sorry, just…distracted, is all."

Mom gave me a sympathetic look. "He'll come around, dear. Once he sees what we're capable of, your brother will join us."

"Yeah…yeah, you're right." I agreed, if only to get her to drop it. I needed to shake this, to distract myself with something else. Perhaps she sensed this, because the next thing I knew, Mom was leading me into another room, this time a kitchen. Mort, Lexi, Sebastian, and Tank were all inside, talking over cups of coffee.

"Hey, when are we going to crack into the Arcturion? You promised us more abilities." Sebastian called upon seeing us. He looked me over briefly, sizing me up, before looking back at my mother. She gave him a look.

"Soon. I'm waiting on my expert so he can find a way for us to use it without the side effects." She promised him. She cleared her throat. "In the meantime, I want you all to get acquainted. The Elite Force has its flaws, but their teamwork has shown to be a useful skill. As of now, I want you all to work as a team. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Terror." The others all replied. Mom looked at me and I nodded softly.

"Good. I'll leave you to it." She declared, walking away. Once she was gone, Sebastian scoffed.

"Mr. Terror. Sounds stupid." He commented, shaking his head.

"It makes her feel powerful." I replied, taking a seat next to him. He looked at me, surprised that I would challenge his opinion like that. "Most villains use code names anyway."

"True. We haven't been introduced. I'm Sebastian." He held out his hand. I went to shake it and tell him my own name when a long-forgotten memory hit me.  _If you're going to play a part, you should commit._ Calla had had a point when she'd told me that. And maybe she had a point. This was a new role for me; I should commit to it, at least more than I already was. And I did have the perfect villain name…

"Call me Short Circuit." I introduced myself, shaking his hand. He smirked.

"Well, this should be interesting." He commented.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chase, Oliver, Skylar, Kaz, Calla, Bree, and Jaden will return in The Power of Seven: A Family Affair.


End file.
